The purpose of the exercise, which is now in its third year, is to raise awareness of earthquake preparedness.
Businesses across the Golden State, along with schools, government agencies and the community in general will all stop what they’re doing at 10:21am on 10/21 to ‘Drop, Cover and Hold On’.
Also part of this year’s ShakeOut theme is the important ‘Secure Your Space’ message.
You can get more information about what’s planned, as well as sign up your own business
to participate, at http://www.shakeout.org
Secure Your Space
From a business standpoint, securing items in data centers, server rooms, warehouses and offices is probably one of the most crucial programs you can undertake if your operations are in an earthquake zone.
Many
businesses have done little, if anything, about getting prepared and that lack of action could come back to haunt them.
We say that because the most recent studies have shown that the vast majority of businesses in California have done precious little in the way of getting themselves prepared for an earthquake and when the big one comes, which it will, they could be left ruing their inaction.
You see,
here’s what happens during earthquakes. The tall, top-heavy things that aren’t secured topple over and crash to the floor. The same can happen to unsecured desktop appliances and equipment. So you can imagine what might happen to a business if, for example, its servers are rendered useless, or expensive equipment in the clean room gets smashed, or its CPUs end up in pieces on the floor.
Just one of those incidents on its own could knock a business offline at least temporarily, but when combined a business would be crippled, which is precisely why it is so critical for a business to undertake non-structural seismic mitigation.
And it’s not just California where businesses have been lackadaisical about preparedness. Similar data suggests the Pacific Northwest and the central US fall into a similar category.
Recognizing that, authorities in Washington State conducted their own ‘Big Rumble 2010’ disaster
preparedness exercise in Kitsap County and their counterparts in the central part of the country are planning the first ‘Great Central US ShakeOut’ for April 28, 2011.
Equipment Fastening
While ShakeOut is expected to draw widespread attention to earthquake preparedness and hopefully encourage more businesses in California to take it more seriously, you might be one of those owners wondering just what you should be doing to get your business prepared for an earthquake.
To start with, you could consider utilizing seismic protection products and services such as those offered by QuakeHOLD! Industrial.
Our expertise encompasses floor fastening systems, lab equipment fastening and countertop fasteners.
Depending on the size and type of items to be secured, we use a variety of fastening
methods.
Some examples – for free standing items we might use a four-corner system of industrial strength straps and floor anchors, flexible straps and quick release buckles for countertop items, and netting to secure loose items on a rack.
There is much more information on the various fastening systems that we have developed on our website www.quakeholdindustrial.com
Risk Assessment
To help figure out our solutions for your needs you can contact us to schedule a risk assessment of your premises.
As we’ve been reminding you repeatedly during the past few months, if you run a business in a seismically active zone, you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and we suggest that you should start today.