 Speaking of big news though too, we are here today with some of the most incredible leaders in public safety. Something we often think about just as police officers and sometimes we add firefighters. But really public safety is about ensuring that we are a resilient city and state. One that can adapt and react to anything that heads our way from fires to floods and what we are unfortunately well known for in this town, earthquakes. In 1769 the group of Franciscan explorers, including Father Juan Crespi, came just a few hundred feet away from here and walked up alongside the banks of a river that they discovered. And there where another river, today's Arroyo Seco, intersected with the larger river they made camp. They took communion in that river. They said it reminded them as Franciscans of the small church in Assisi that St. Francis had built called the Porciuncula. And they named the river El Río de Nuestro Señora la Arena de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, which has thankfully been shortened to just LA these days. But that was where this city was born. But that night if you look at their diary, they said that day two earthquakes visited them. Two earthquakes visited those first explorers who put down the name of this town. So from the very beginning and of course for the native Tongva who were here before, earthquakes has been a part of our life here in Southern California. But today we take another step forward to continue letting people know what they can do to prepare, to react, and to rebuild from when Mother Earth shakes our city and our state and why we are here for the 10th anniversary of the great Shake Out Drill. And it's a privilege to not only mark that history, but to make history. That history has been tragic at times for us, but it's also been heroic when the best of Los Angeles has come together. For close to a century this magnificent structure has made history and will do so again today because at 10.18 a.m. as millions of people across the city, state, and country drop cover and hold on. We're going to activate our pilot earthquake early warning system installed right here in City Hall, becoming the first public building in the city to be equipped with this breakthrough technology. Now this milestone has been made possible because of the power of partnerships, first and foremost between our state and our city. We are so proud to be part of the Shake Alert pilot program as well in conjunction with our extraordinary federal leaders too from the U.S. Geological Survey and early warning labs. As you know we've had a great partnership even having folks from the USGS detailed for the first time we think in America to a City Hall when Dr. Lucy was here helping us think through how to make our buildings more resilient. And the leadership of USGS has been absolutely critical to the work that we have done over the last five years. This is the first of two early warning pilots that we're advancing as we work to get this life-saving tool to the public as quickly as possible. And so together another partnership with USGS and AT&T we're developing as many of you know an earthquake early warning app for your phones and smart devices called Shake Alert LA. And over the next several months the smart phone based application will be tested with city employees ahead of a public release at the end of the year. By advancing earthquake early warning technology we are making Los Angeles stronger we're making Angelenos safer and it will help save lives most importantly by giving people those precious seconds to stop elevators to pull to the side of the road and to drop cover and hold on. All that will not happen the first day when we launch but together with the private sector we will build the software and the hardware that will allow us to be able to anticipate and react to an earthquake before we even feel it here. It's a wonderful clock that goes off. That's a gift from the people of our sister city in Japan. I'll try to speak through it because I always hit that button quite loud. But anyway we pushed through the limits of technology because here in California we see the power of the possibility because we are a resilient city and Angelenos are resilient people. So every day we are communicating with Angelenos this is not just the job of government this is not just the job of the state or the feds this is your job where you work where you live protect and plan for an earthquake. We want to give you the tools and the resources you need to build a better life and then to protect that life when disaster strikes. Like so many of us this is very personal for me. When I was in college I left town the day before the Northridge earthquake. I also missed the riots by a day so my parents told me to stop leaving LA. But I'm from the valley and I saw from my dormitory room images from afar of so many things and so many people that I loved uprooted and felled in a cloud of dust. But the bonds of community were so tight in this city and when you think about almost a majority of Angelenos weren't alive when that earthquake hit now given how young this city is. But we saw communities endure people that didn't pack up and leave but who stayed and together we helped rebuild this city. So when I became mayor I know that it's a tough call it's easy to kick the can you just pray and hope the big one won't hit you but you do nothing to prepare the next mayor or the next next mayor and the city for the day when it inevitably is going to come. So when we looked at that we made sure that we created this historic partnership together with USGS Dr. Jones with the folks that came in here from the building sector people who were structural engineers and we put together a plan to move our city forward proactively and strategically not to just be jarred into action by the next big quake. I'm proud of what we accomplished so that we don't just survive but that we also thrive here in LA and to date I wanted to just update you briefly that we have retrofitted a record number of structures that would be vulnerable when the big one hits. More than 1,100 soft storage retrofits have been completed 6,700 more have already submitted their plans for retrofits and 2,800 of those have received permits. So we're talking about thousands of buildings containing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Angelenos that we are addressing what can be achieved tomorrow but we're also focused on what we can do here and now. And this past March we released what the Rockefeller and a hundred resilient cities folks told us was the best resilient city plan Mirsa Ho who is around here there she is right there in front of me our great Chief Resilience Officer give her and her team a round of applause because a lot of hard work went into that so thank you Mirsa. This plan is a resilience strategy featuring actions for Angelenos to take in advance of inedible shocks and stresses from earthquakes to flooding to climate change and the plan is filled with actions that you can take today so I encourage you to check it out you can go to lamayor.org and read more about it engage with our Office of Public Safety and meet and talk with our Chief Resilience Officer to see what you can do in your business in your community or in your residents and take some time today I hope all Angelenos hear this loud and clear take some time to talk to your family today this isn't just about practicing what you do when the big one hits but making sure what you have prepared in your home do you have a plan of where you're all going to meet in a digital age do you have an analog plan because while part of the work that we did is about sharing bandwidth and allowing us to make sure that we can do the best to communicate with each other there are scenarios that are so big that water, communications, electricity is cut off and you need an analog plan the old fashioned way of where are we going to meet where are we going to go and how are we going to survive if you also want to get emergency alerts to your phones please sign up for those text the word ready to 888-777 that's 888-777 just text ready I've already done this with my family please do it with yours and for more information on how to make a plan stock up an emergency kit register for emergency notifications and more go to readyla.org we've always been at the epicenter of seismic risk but working together we can make us the epicenter of seismic preparedness resilience and safety with that I'd like to turn it over to our first distinguished guest who is the deputy assistant secretary of the interior for water and science at the department of the interior Austin Newell who is helping us lead the way there are no levels of government when it comes to our public safety there are in a moment where everybody feels states are painted colors and people are at war with each other from the coast to the heartland I don't see that happen not here in Los Angeles not with our federal partners and not with our state partners and in the role that Austin has he oversees the USGS and everyone here knows how critical that is to our life I want to thank Austin and welcome deputy assistant secretary you will say some words thank you thank you very much for that kind introduction I'm honored to be here today as the mayor had said my name is Austin Newell I'm the deputy assistant secretary for water and science at the department of the interior I am a California native and went to college and law school here in Southern California and will be returning back home in the near future I wanted to let you know that it's been a pleasure of mine to serve with secretary Zinke while being at the department of the interior and among his priorities is to protect our people you probably know that interior as the federal agency that oversees national parks, Hoover Dam but it also oversees the United States Geological Survey which has studied earthquakes for over a century their science helps us better understand natural disasters build safer infrastructure and grow resilient communities and businesses put simply science helps us protect our people earlier this year I took part in a scenario that simulated the impacts of the eventual 7.0 earthquake right under Oakland I met so many community leaders there who eagerly embraced USGS science and were using it to prepare firefighters and law enforcement officials who must always be prepared for every scenario were very grateful but so were business leaders they foresaw that restoring services to their customers will be an important piece of any recovery the goal is to ensure that a disaster does not become a catastrophe this month the USGS and its partners including the city of Los Angeles announced the public release of ShakeAlert the earthquake early warning system for the west coast you'll hear a lot more about the ShakeAlert from others but I'd like to say two important points about it first the administration is very pleased that the state has contributed to the development of ShakeAlert we believe that a successful earthquake early warning system must be a joint endeavor between the federal government and the states and here in California the USGS is working closely with Cal OES to make ShakeAlert effective and reliable I'm confident that this model will prove useful as the system continues to expand second secretary Zinke last week directed agencies all along the west coast to expedite installations of earthquake and volcano monitoring equipment on public lands this will ensure that our public lands are put to good use to benefit all and we are as prepared as possible the motto for the annual earthquake exercise is don't freak out shake out large damaging earthquakes are a fact of life but we choose whether to fear them or to prepare for them the Department of the Interior is working to do its part to help us prepare thanks again for having me here today thank you so much thank you Deputy Assistant Secretary spoken well like a true Trojan so good stuff good to have you back here we got some Bruins here too we're very very tolerant of everybody here next up we have another really great leader who is a great friend to Los Angeles and a personal friend and somebody who I just spent a few minutes with talking about some of the work that we're doing together to make sure that our city and state have seamless operations and he has had a very very busy year as we've had wildfires that have broken records as we've seen 15,000 homes in the state destroyed he has been a huge part of not just the response but also the rebuilding and I'm so grateful for Cal OES's work as a driving force advancing in particular our earthquake early warning system here in the City of Angels so with that I'd like to invite the Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Marcula Ducci to come forward to say some words thank you Mark for being here and thanks for all you do all right well good morning and Mayor thanks so much for hosting us today and our partners that are here with us from the Department of the Interior and the USGS and the earthquake authority really all of us here today to spend some time to understand that today the great shake out our effort to be prepared when the next earthquake hits and we know the next earthquake will hit what we do cut together today as individuals as families as businesses working together that will make a huge difference when the earthquake occurs today is a time to learn and practice on what to do when the earthquake hits drop cover and hold on it's not if it's when everyone everywhere needs to know how to protect themselves protect their families and protect their businesses during an earthquake in this state we are disaster prone we have wildfires we have earthquakes we have floods it's incumbent if you're a Californian to learn to empower yourself to be prepared the great shake out encourages all of us communities organizations individuals to be prepared it helps us focus on how to survive and how to recover quickly when the earthquake happens this effort includes all of us individuals in schools business and government neighborhoods nonprofits households across the state and while we're here in Los Angeles the great city of Los Angeles earthquakes can happen all over California whether you're here living here or visiting being prepared is important and your participation today in today's drill is critical and serves as an example to others and encourages others to be prepared really you may only have seconds to protect yourself when an earthquake hits so know what to do drop cover hold on until the earthquake passes and speaking of seconds as mentioned by the mayor and the great work in the partnership interior in the USGS working with the city of Los Angeles and other cities we've been working closely to build the seconds that we need in being able to give us information prior to the shaking from an earthquake through the earthquake early warning system you'll hear more about this today but this innovative and exciting capability is really going to do a tremendous amount to not just save lives but to protect our businesses to protect our infrastructure so that we can rapidly recover following a disaster the California earthquake early warning system is being built and will roll out soon the government agencies the businesses the schools the transportation industries all of them are coming around telecommunications to be able to make this a reality for our state and it's designed to protect you and your loved ones pilot projects are being tested now throughout the state of California to ensure for a reliable and sustainable warning system this is an exciting time the mayor mentioned the app that's being developed here and the great work the city of Los Angeles leading the way bringing it an example for our other communities in our state as the mayor mentioned he and I had a chance to meet discuss some of the ongoing collaborative efforts and we are deeply appreciative at the state of California for our partnership with the city of Los Angeles and our partners at the USGS that have been doing so much work in the meantime until that system is rolled out remember what you learned today earthquakes can happen anytime can happen anytime when it does drop cover and hold on we may be having an earthquake now build a family plan build a family plan make sure you have supplies practice your drill practice your family plan the mayor mentioned ready.la the mayor mentioned ready.la go to ready.la ready.la.org right and get the great information there nothing that we do though takes the place of your personal engagement you being personally prepared you being personally empowered to take care of yourself and to take care of your family and so remember when the earthquake happens drop cover and hold on thank you very much thank you so much Mark appreciate you very much and the only reason we have a little timer here is because we have to hit the 10-18 okay so somebody who I will keep it brief somebody who I know is one of the most articulate people I know who was the brains behind our plan as I said USGS was the brains we were going to be the brawn but when Dr. Lucy Jones took my call when the Department of Interior agreed to allow her to work out of here four days a week and for us to come together to create the plan it really was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between not only two people but also two entities and something that will save lives I'm so pleased that the woman known as the earthquake lady on the radio is here with us Dr. Lucy Jones thank you Eric I'm really it's great fun to be back down here for the 10th anniversary of ShakeOut I am still trying to get my mind around the idea that this has been going on for 10 years you know when we first created ShakeOut it was to explain the results of the ShakeOut scenario because we saw that people didn't understand what a big earthquake meant we knew we were getting ready for an earthquake we didn't know what we were getting ready for and we saw that nobody outside of schools seemed to have ever heard of Drop Cover Hold On we had the Chino Hills earthquake and watched all of these people running out of their building so we decided to focus it on the drill and I'm still amazed that in that first year we got one quarter of the population of Southern California 5 million people to participate in the drill and I discovered you know when you get 5 million people to do something other people take notice I had not intended ShakeOut to keep on going but here we are 10 years later with tens of millions of people around the world participating and it's more than a drill it's more than the fact that we're all going to Drop Cover Hold On as important as that is it is the city coming together it's the whole country and even you know much of the world saying earthquakes are real earthquakes affect us and we can do something about them it is empowerment it is seeing other people taking control of the earthquake problem and doing something yourself and I first came down and met Mayor Garcetti and it was the day before ShakeOut and I came partly because everybody was doing ShakeOut but we were all focused on that one step step 5 Drop Cover Hold On well there's 6 other steps in the 7 steps to earthquake safety with some really important stuff about preventing the losses and that's what I came to talk with Mayor Garcetti about and we came together we got interior to agree we had the sharing time and the result is a relatively complex plan and now it's much more complex with all that Marisa has done to add to it and you don't solve the earthquake problem with one step there are a lot of things that you have to do and there's a lot of things that everyone has to do individual owners need to make their own buildings safe the city needs to make sure that all of the buildings are moving in that direction the city needs to help us with our water system there's a lot of different steps and partly because of ShakeOut and the awareness that it's bringing we're getting more traction and we're moving forward on all of this and now today we add into the mix of things that can be done we're adding in ShakeAlert and the ability to have a very short warning you know it really only depends on how far away you are from the earthquake if you're right on top of it there's going to be any warning maybe not a lot that you can do individually the farther away the more you get but it's what we can do and it's going to make a difference it means we can do things like move elevators to the nearest floor so you don't spend the next three days without electricity trapped in an elevator it means that we can do things that prevent fires so it's one more step and a really important one towards earthquake safety it's something we can't give up but in the last decade there has been a real change in California about how people are willing to engage with the problem and understand it and I'm incredibly proud of my city and my state and how much we've been able to do thank you thank you so much Dr. Jones next we know FEMA is always there for us FEMA in any disaster springs into action on the bad days but they're also here with us on the blue sky days standing shoulder to shoulder with our city to help us plan and prepare and so we're very pleased to have from FEMA Region 9 Brandy Richard, the public affairs officer to say some words on behalf of FEMA thank you Brandy well good morning and on behalf of FEMA Region 9 and Administrator Bob Fenton out of our region we're just happy to be here and to lock arms with state and local leaders to help people to prepare for disasters I'm hearing myself everyone everywhere should know how to protect themselves during earthquakes earthquakes can happen anywhere without warning and a huge part of the work that we do all year long is helping communities across the nation but especially here in Region 9 know exactly what to do when a disaster strikes we're here today just to emphasize the importance of being prepared and as some of the people who have spoken before me mentioned it's not just drop cover hold on the steps that you can do in order to not only prepare your home but prepare your families for disasters so we want you to know what to do next so we'd like for you to take this opportunity to follow up on the resources that have been provided to you go to readyla.org or go to our page at ready.gov forward slash earthquakes to get the specific steps that you need to take there are also apps that you can download you can download the FEMA app and more how to prepare your family for disasters so we're just excited to be here excited to see the synergy between all of these brilliant people excited about making sure that you're prepared for the next big disaster thanks so much thank you so much Brandy Richard next up we have a professor of earth sciences at USC it's a USC theme today but also the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center or SCEC at SCEC are constantly helping us to expand our knowledge of earthquakes and grateful for the fundamental and important research that has saved countless lives so I'd like to ask Dr. John Vidal to come forward who's the professor of earth sciences at USC John thank you very much so I'm director Skech the Southern California Earthquake Center and Professor USC Skech's the nation's largest earthquake science center collaboration with more than 800 scientists 70 universities nationwide we've known of the threat of earthquakes for a century yet we've far to go to understand them and even farther to widely prepare I'll mention just two examples of Skech's science first we're checking whether earthquakes come in super cycles a few decades with many earthquakes separated by quieter centuries or or more evenly spaced fairly constant danger second earthquakes recur as they recur in a cycle we're literally digging up the ground to try to find the thousand year history of earthquakes in California to better anticipate what might come Southern California is the epicenter of earthquake science because average losses due to earthquakes in California will in the long term average $4 billion a year most years are harmless a few years will be very very bad we're taking the guesswork out of estimates of our vulnerability with state-of-the-art calculations on the nation's largest supercomputers built on decades of careful geological investigation we're grateful to Mayor Garcetti for taking the lead in prudent planning for a safer future the plans will ensure that in a few years buildings will be up to standards communicating earthquake information in many partnerships is a major activity at Skech which administers the statewide earthquake country alliance created the great California shakeout drill in 2008 and Skech has expanded the concept across the U.S. and around the world now I'm pleased to introduce Mark Benthe and our director of communication who will tell you more about global shakeout participation we got only a few minutes until the drill so imagine what's happened 1018 didn't start for us it started here for us but it's been happening around the world since 130 yesterday afternoon when New Zealand when 900,000 people in New Zealand dropped cover and held on then it moved to Guam and all around all the time zones so we're not the first to be doing this today and then it's going to be Alaska and Hawaii and America's most so it's a worldwide phenomenon all along the west coast in a few minutes I think it's doing the math about 14 million people will be joining us over and hold on this was all possible because of amazing partnerships here in California the earthquake country alliance is proud of the support we have from FEMA the California office of emergency services the California earthquake authority for many years has helped put commercials on TV about shakeout helping to spread the word even new partnerships like rocket rules and earlier we had some kids from Holmes Elementary doing this great dance that I hope you get a chance to see so it's all sorts of partnerships and of course even all the people and all the organizations that are doing their drills they're taking the time to make earthquake safety a priority for at least a minute and hopefully longer so shakeout.org is where people can find out about the drill about how to participate and still to register you can still register in your shakeout drill any day of the year for the rest of the year and earthquakecountry.org is where you can find out about the seven steps to earthquake safety how you can be prepared to survive and recover when the next earthquake happens. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Mark. You count to 14 million faster than anybody I know that was amazing. Thank you for your leadership and finally we have Glenn Pomeroy who is the chief executive officer of the California earthquake authority which helps us to keep the things that we hold so safe and secure we're really lucky to have Glenn who can tell us about their work reducing the risk of loss. Glenn Mike Fungiers. Thank you very much Mayor California earthquake authority is the state's not-for-profit earthquake insurance company for homeowners we've been around for about 22 years we've lowered rates we've expanded coverage options we now ensure over a million homes we're making progress to get more financial protection in place but we have a long ways to go I'm really here today to talk about a specific program that we're running right now that's very exciting to people in the Los Angeles area and it's ripped from today's headlines in today's LA Times front page great story by Ron Lin a headlined simple quake retrofit often ignored right down there see him there he is what's a great story and he's right it's too often ignored but the CEA we're trying to make sure that we don't ignore it any longer we formed a partnership with Cal OES and created this program called the earthquake brace and bolt program a few years since that we launched this a few years ago we provide reimbursement of up to $3,000 to people who are selected in a random drawing to retrofit their home we have now retrofitted over 6,500 homes over the last few years and mayor here in Los Angeles County we have retrofitted 3,700 homes since we launched this program and right now we're in the midst of seeking people to sign up for the next round of retrofits so 100 zip codes throughout LA County are eligible to go online go to earthquake brace bolt .com go online see if your home is in a qualifying zip code and sign up doesn't cost anything and you might be one of the 2,000 lucky winners who are going to get $3,000 to retrofit your home a properly retrofitted home isn't going to topple off its foundation as if it had the rug pulled out from underneath it when the ground starts to shake so on this day on this great drill on this shake out drill to help make sure that more of our neighbors can make their older home stronger so it's not going to shake off its foundation earthquake brace bolt .com thank you mayor I'm told we're a little ahead of schedule because we're all so good so if you have any points you didn't make and you want to come back more than happy to have that is there any Spanish media too? let me just give some general words in Spanish first and then we'll take questions until we get the sign for our young people who are there waiting who are going to be part of the drill Buenos días a todos Estamos aquí hoy para el décimo gran simulacro anual shake out para practicar y preparar por un terremoto Hoy a las 10 18 de la mañana millones de personas van a cayer cubrirse y agarrarse bien aunque estén en la casa y en el trabajo o en la escuela hoy activamos nuestro sistema de piloto aquí en el ayunamiento para recibir una alerta temprana antes de un terremoto excuse me este es el primer edificio municipal en la ciudad para recibir esta nueva tecnología este piloto es el primero de dos pilotos de alerta temprana que estamos avanzando mientras destruir esta aplicación al público lo más pronto posible tomen tiempo hoy para conversar con sus familias y seres queridos para que sepan que hacer a donde ir y como encontrarse en el evento de una emergencia o un terremoto deben juntar un kit para emergencias y registrarse para recibir alertas de emergencia gratis en su teléfono móvil solo tiene que enviar ready 888777 para más información sobre como hace preparar su kit de emergencia y registrarse para recibir notificaciones visite readyle.org no podemos esperar que llegue un terremoto para tomar acción este es el día de preparar este es el día a salvar las vidas de su familia y preparar por su propiedad gracias a este equipo nuestros líderes federales, estatales y locales estamos un equipo a preparar esta ciudad para un terremoto y hay acciones concretas que nosotros podemos tomar hoy por favor tomanlos and with that happy answer questions yes you have the first question you're good? okay other questions anybody want to do it in French? Spanish website shakeout.org diagonal español es el sitio de web o terremotos.org alright thanks everybody for coming thank you the team and I know we're going to practice the drill over there we're going to observe just so folks know, so the adults are going to observe our young people are going to be the first ones who are going to practice what we do when that alert comes this is only a drill this is only a drill thank you