Students and faculty participated in the U’s Great Utah ShakeOut earthquake drill to drop, cover and hold Wednesday morning as a part of the annual statewide ShakeOut drill and Earthquake Awareness Month.
The Wasatch Fault, a fracture within the earth that runs directly through 1300 East in Salt Lake City, is predicted to erupt every 350 years — the last eruption was 150 years ago.
Marty Shaub, Certified Energy Manager and Executive Director of Emergency Health, said this type of drill was to teach us how to survive when an earthquake strikes.
“It’s not if, it’s when,” she said.
This is the second time the U has participated in the Utah ShakeOut, and Shaub said the U will continue to do so every April. Roughly 11,000 people participated on campus in the U’s 2011 earthquake drill. Shaub said they hoped for 15,000 this year.

After the initial drop, cover and hold, participants evacuated to the closest Emergency Assembly Point, which were set up in 11 open areas across campus. A large green “EAP” sign under each tent identified each station. Teams offered free flashlights to participants as well as a chance to win an iPad 2 during the drill. In a real crisis, EAP teams would offer medical attention as well as flashlights to disaster victims. The military science team also set up a tent to practice their response to an earthquake.
Because of high pressure and high temperature steam lines running underground, the interior U campus is the most dangerous area to be during an earthquake. The goal would be to meet inside the stadium bowl if it survived the earthquake, Shaub said. The stadium has the advantage of concessions and water if they are needed.
In the future, Shaub hopes to model the U’s emergency system to the School of Business’ system, in which each building is assigned a personalized roster to keep a better accounting process of the people. Currently, the assembly points keep a random checklist of the estimated 2,000-3,000 students and employees that pass through each station.
The Disaster Planning Assembly, first responder units, faculty and police will conduct a more in-depth drill Thursday. The drill will include fake incoming calls to replicate the amount of stress the teams would be under in a real disaster.
Several participants expressed concern about the U’s current emergency system. Susan Manning, an employee at the University Campus Store, had to walk from the bookstore to the stadium parking lot.
“I think it’s good to raise awareness [of earthquakes],” she said. “I just don’t know if everybody would make it this far.”
Jacob Acharte, a senior majoring in psychology, said he didn’t receive a Campus Text Alert though he had signed up to receive messages.
“My friends received a message. I didn’t. Is there a glitch in the system?” he said.
He also noticed there wasn’t enough space for all of the students to cover in his classroom.
“About half of them had to stand against a wall,” he said.