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Vol. 80, No. 42 March Air Reserve Base, California Friday, October 23, 2015

NEWS BRIEFS Great California ShakeOut hits March

PLACE FLAGS TO by Senior Master Sgt. David Smith gency management technician, 452nd
HONOR VETS 452 AMW public affairs
Civil Engineer Squadron. “Conducting a
If you are interested in help- Team March members helped kick off the
ing place ﬂags on the graves of Great California ShakeOut on Thursday, base exercise, while being careful not to
Veterans prior to Veteran’s Day, Oct. 15. The exercise began at 10:15 a.m.
please join us. We plan to meet with a simulated earthquake lasting three disrupt real world missions, is always a
at Riverside Evergreen His- minutes. The ﬁrst order of business was to
torical Cemetery (4414 14th drop, get cover under a desk and hold on. challenge. People evacuated buildings to
St., Riverside, 92501) on Sat-
urday morning, Nov. 7, 8 a.m. The statewide earthquake exercise is their rally points effectively and reports
to place American ﬂags on the designed to help prepare Californians for
graves of more than 1,000 Vet- a large-scale earthquake. Millions of peo- to the command and control center were
erans (to include the gravesite ple worldwide simultaneously participate
of Col. Cornelius Cole Smith, in these drills, which began in California turned in timely.”
United States Army, the ceme- in 2008, according to statistics listed at
tery’s only Congressional Med- shakeout.org/California. Mission partners participated in the
al of Honor recipient) in honor
of Veteran’s Day, which is Nov. Once the shaking stopped March em- exercise to the extent practical to their
11. All American ﬂags are pro- ployees exited buildings to designated
vided. Any and all volunteers accountability sites. The Emergency Op- mission sets, Rodi said. March member
are welcomed to participate. erations Center was set up and activated.
The ﬂags will remain in place Upon activation of the Emergency Op- were also in contact with City/County
through Veteran’s Day. Make it erations Center base personnel performed
a family day and hike to the top necessary steps to ensure the base and sur- Emergency Management teams as they
of Mount Rubidoux after you rounding community recovered from the
are done placing ﬂags. If you earthquake and able to continue operations conducted simultaneous scenarios.
have any questions, please con- supporting recovery efforts.
tact Mr. John Morris at 951- “It is always necessary to be as inclu- U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Master Sgt. David Smith
655-3622 or 951-746-0416. “I believe the exercise went very well,”
said Lt. Col. Aurthur Rodi, deputy com- sive as possible to help ensure all of our Marvin J. Tucker, chief of emergency man-
MANDATORY FLU mander, 452nd Mission Support Group. “It partners understand the need to account agement, 452nd Civil Engineer Squadron,
VACCINATIONS is always a challenge to conduct an exer- for our workforce and any facility struc- waits inside the Mobile Emergency Opera-
cise scenario that impacts the entire instal- tural damage that may occur from a ma- tions Center October 15, 2015, to update
The 452 AMW Flu Vaccina- lation. There are certain limitations that jor earthquake,” Rodi said. Col. Timothy McCoy, 452nd Mission Sup-
tion Campaign has begun, and must be accommodated to be effective.”
will continue through the De- Being ready takes practice and prac- port Group commander, of the simulated
cember’s UTAs. The Flu vac- The ﬁrst responders and key communi-
cination is mandatory for all cation nodes are well prepared to react to tice makes progress. Several factors can earthquake involving March Field personnel.
Airmen unless exempted by such an incident. affect readiness, and results will depend Team March members participated in the
medical staff. Airmen not cur- on the day, time, amount of personnel statewide event to help prepare for when
rent with their Flu vaccination “We received good responses from our on the base as well as the severity of the “the big one” hits.
after the December UTAs will facility managers, providing us simulated
potentially be placed in a no- casualty and facility damage reports,” Rodi earthquake or other event, Kaschak said. Forecast, or “UCERF3”, provides authori-
point, no-pay status. said. “As always the training helped newly “Our goal is to ensure people know what tative estimates of the magnitude, location,
assigned members to understand the pro- and likelihood of earthquake fault rupture
Please remind your fellow cesses and procedures needed to be effec- to do and can react in a manner to keep throughout the state.
Airmen to attend our mass im- tive should an actual catastrophe occur.” them safe,” he said.
munization site at Bldg. 355 However, in the new study, the estimate
(2355 Graeber St.) during the Once accountability was taken every- That’s exactly what this exercise is all for the likelihood that California will expe-
October and November UTAs. one got to work. Emergency units set up about, to test their abilities to respond to a
the triage center and began treating the catastrophic event, Rodi said.
Schedule for October/No- inured. Law enforcement and the ﬁre de-
vember UTAs is: Saturdays 8 partment began surveying the base to see “We continue to hone our abilities rience a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake
a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sundays 8 how well facilities fared and to determine
a.m. - 3 p.m. mission readiness. to respond to a variety of incidences, in the next 30 years has increased from

Additionally, there will be a “The objectives were met. (There’s) al- whether a natural disaster or an aircraft about 4.7 percent for UCERF2 to about 7.0
mobile vaccination site at the ways a concern for response, reporting
and accountability and we did well in all mishap,” he said. “Each of these exercis- percent for UCERF3.
See BRIEFS page 3 three areas,” said Robert Kaschak, emer- es provides that opportunity to ensure we “We are fortunate that seismic activity
can mitigate personnel, equipment, and
facility losses, and the mission of the in- in California has been relatively low over
stallation can continue.” the past century. But we know that tec-
tonic forces are continually tightening the
According to an article on the U.S. Geo- springs of the San Andreas fault system,
logical Survey’s website, compared to the

previous assessment issued in 2008, the making big quakes inevitable,” said Tom

second Uniform California Earthquake Jordan, Director of the Southern California

Rupture Forecast (UCERF2), the estimat- Earthquake Center and a co-author of the

ed rate of (California) earthquakes around study. “The UCERF3 model provides our
magnitude 6.7, the size of the destructive leaders and the public with improved infor-
1994 Northridge earthquake, has gone mation about what to expect, so that we can
down by about 30 percent. The expected better prepare.”
frequency of such events statewide has
dropped from an average of one per 4.8 Public service announcements advise
years to about one per 6.3 years. Californians to plan and prepare for an
earthquake in hopes of preventing a disas-
The new model, referred to as the third

Uniform California Earthquake Rupture ter from becoming a catastrophe.

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