Drop, cover, and hold on to your wallet

by CalWatchdog Staff | October 19, 2012 8:58 am

Oct. 19, 2012

[1]

Katy Grimes: Thursday was “The Great California Shake Out[2],” earthquake preparedness day. I had the great fortune to be at the CalEPA building for a California Air Resources Board meeting in Sacramento, where we were expected to “drop, cover, and hold on.”

As I huddled on the floor with my notebook over my head, hoping that the carpet was clean, I wondered why there has been such a big media push by the Earthquake Authority.

Last year I contacted the California Earthquake Authority[3] to ask who they are and why they advertise so much. The public information officer I spoke with was uncomfortable with my questions and wanted to know why I wanted to know. Finally I got him to tell me that the CEA is a publicly managed, mostly privately funded organization that provides catastrophic residential earthquake insurance. He was insistent that they are not a public agency.

Anyone who owns a home and lives within an officially designated earthquake area must have earthquake insurance. But I still find it highly suspicious that the earthquake authority is publicly managed and “largely privately funded,” especially since many homeowners are not given a choice about carrying earthquake insurance.

The Great California Shake Out[4] program has plastered the airwaves recently and news lately, along with the CEA’s commercials about its insurance. The Great California Shake Out website[5] is a bit of a mystery until you scroll down to the bottom of the page. The sponsors are FEMA, the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC[6], California Earthquake Authority[7], California Emergency Management Agency[8], the United States Geological Survey[9], American Red Cross and State Farm Insurance Company.

The other strange group attached is the Earthquake Country Alliance[10], the organizer of California’s annual earthquake drill, a project of the USC earthquake center[11], funded by the National Science Foundation[12] and the U.S. Geological Survey[13]. The National Science Foundation doesn’t actually do work, they fund other groups.

It’s all about the publicly-funded grants.

Obviously California earthquakes are real, but do a dozen agencies, boards, commissions and companies need to be involved? It’s a drain on public funds.

And their commercials are stupid.

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/10/19/drop-cover-and-hold-on-to-your-wallet/220px-earthquake_movie/
  2. The Great California Shake Out: http://www.shakeout.org/california/
  3. California Earthquake Authority: http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/index.aspx?id=1&pid=1
  4. Great California Shake Out: http://www.shakeout.org/california/
  5. website: http://www.shakeout.org/california/
  6. Southern California Earthquake Center at USC: http://www.scec.org/
  7. California Earthquake Authority: http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/
  8. California Emergency Management Agency: http://www.calema.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx
  9. United States Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/
  10. Earthquake Country Alliance: http://www.earthquakecountry.info/
  11. USC earthquake center: http://www.scec.org/
  12. National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/
  13. U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/

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