Poly Leads the Way in Early Earthquake Detection

Drop, cover, and hold on! Poly students and employees practiced earthquake safety during Thursday’s Great ShakeOut drill, joining over 70 million people worldwide for the annual exercise. After practicing the recommended safety steps, students and employees evacuated campus buildings.The drill also tested Poly’s emergency response protocols and ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system, helping ensure the school is prepared in the event of an earthquake.

Poly’s connection to early warning technology goes back to spring 2019, when the school helped pioneer a system designed to provide more precise, location-specific alerts. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and a software vendor, Poly helped develop and test technology that could calculate the expected shaking intensity at the school’s specific address, 1030 E. Colorado Blvd.

Unlike systems that estimate shaking across a broader region, Poly’s system is designed to assess the potential impact at its campus location. This site-specific approach helps make alerts more relevant to the community receiving them.

The effort was led by former Safety and Security Manager Dave Yamaoka, P ’00, ’10, who helped connect the technology with Poly’s existing campus audio infrastructure. The system uses earthquake data to model the shaking that may reach campus and deliver an alert through the school’s audio system, giving the community a chance to take protective action before stronger shaking arrives. Poly still uses this system for early detection.

“It could happen anytime, anywhere. I think the important part for us is to practice the drills so that everybody can, as an automatic reaction, drop, cover, hold on,” said Yamaoka.

Early warning technology can provide only a brief window to respond, and the amount of time varies depending on an earthquake’s location and other conditions. That makes practice essential. 

The Great ShakeOut serves as an annual reminder that preparedness depends on both technology and knowing what to do when an alert sounds. By testing its procedures and early warning system, Poly continues to reinforce the importance of being ready to respond.