Students practice earthquake drills

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - The third Thursday in October marks the Great Nevada ShakeOut where students across the state practice their earthquake drill, and families should be too.

These practice drills come at a good time this year with the recent earthquake activity we have seen in Sparks.

Kyren Bogolub, A seismologist with the University of Nevada, Reno says: “These earthquakes are very common, this is earthquake country, but again smaller earthquakes are a nice reminder to be prepared for those big earthquakes, which are definitely possible in this area.”

She also says it’s important to have an earthquake emergency kit, with supplies for at least three days, but preferably two weeks, packed and ready in case you need it. Boglub shares some of her other advice as well:

“You maybe don’t want to hang a large mirror or painting above your bed, or anywhere you spend a lot of time. Just remember that even with small magnitude earthquakes, things can fall off the walls.”

Roy Anderson, Emergency Manager at the Washoe County School District says that it is not just protecting the children at school that is important, but also families at home:

“One of the biggest things that we like to try to stress is that yes, we are in a school setting, but earthquakes can happen at any time, we just had one in Spanish springs. So, this is something they can take and translate home and really encourage our students to do that.”

Copyright 2023 KOLO. All rights reserved.