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Great Shakeout Shakes Out Great

Karen Richards

At 10:15 today (Thursday), millions of people around the world stopped, dropped and held on as part of the Great Shakeout. Instructors and students at Lane Community College's downtown campus took part in the earthquake drill.

The Great Oregon Shakeout is a test of systems and people's responses to them. LCC's Elaine Eiler-Mough assigned monitors to each floor of the building. After the one-minute exercise, they reported back:

Eiler-Mough (and others): "They did good, I'm surprised. They actually got under their tables and did the thing. Awesome! Super. The only thing I have to report third floor is that, standing in the hall, the speaker itself was hard to hear."

Instructors weren't reminded beforehand, to better simulate an emergency. Public Safety officer James Harris estimated a 98% building participation rate. Emergency management experts advise people to drop to their hands and knees, cover the head and neck, and hold on to a desk or table until the shaking stops. Standing in a doorway is not recommended, because it won't protect from flying or falling objects. 

For more information, visit the Great Oregon Shakeout website here.

Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.
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