Earthquake Safety Group Advocates for Retrofitting Schools

Ed Yeates Reporting A citizens' advocacy group is again asking the legislature to set aside money to fix schools that could collapse in an earthquake.

The group, calling itself SAFE, appeared before the Legislative Public Education Appropriations subcommittee about two hours ago.

You're retrofitting and fixing your own house to keep this from happening, why not the schools?

That's the question from SAFE or "Save All From Earthquakes," as the group calls itself. While many districts like Salt Lake City already have a plan in place to fix or replace schools, some districts can't afford to do them all.

People think that schools and bricks are like legos--they're not!"

So says SAFE's Gary Wallace, who with his own legos and dominoes - demonstrates all the time what will happen to older schools when our magnitude seven quake arrives.

Gary Wallace, Save All From Earthquakes: "The problem with Utah, we only have a big earthquake every 200 years or more. California, they have one every ten to twenty years. They had one that wiped out 70 schools and within a month, they passed legislation to build them right. And we're in this everything is going fine mode - and then all of a sudden, cablooey"

Forty to 45 percent of schools along the Wasatch Front are NOT earthquake safe. In Utah County, a new building will soon replace an old Timpanogas School which is so fragile, it's already falling apart.

On the other hand, this new Mountain View school is a classic example of earthquake resistance at its best.

SAFE says we know how to do earthquake drills and simulations, but unlike Mountain View School, many buildings will fall on top of the kids from shaking alone, or sink and tip over in soils that literally liquefy in the quake.

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