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State of the Bay

City Visions: Governor bets on earthquake early warning systems

Ray Bouknight

On the August 15, 2016 City Visions:  In May, a leading earthquake scientist reported that the southern San Andreas fault is "locked, loaded, and ready to roll."  

This news has brought renewed attention to California's backward earthquake early warning system, which Governor Jerry Brown is hoping to improve with a new allocation of money in this year's budget.

How much warning makes a difference in outcomes?  How will a warning be transmitted to impact the most people?  And how is the state hoping YOU can help?

Producer:  Wendy Holcombe

Guests:

Richard Allen, Ph.D. - Director, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley.  He is an expert in earthquake alerting systems, developing methodologies to detect earthquakes and issue warnings prior to shaking.  His research has been featured in Science, Nature, Scientific American, the New York Times, and more.  He has a BA from Cambridge University, a PhD from Princeton University, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech.

Harvey Fineberg, Ph.D. - President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.  Former Presidential Chair for 2014-2015 visiting professor at the University of California, San Francisco.  Prior to that, he served as president of the Institute of Medicine from 2002 to 2014 and as provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following 13 years as the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.