President Obama Seeks $5 Million For West Coast Earthquake Early Warning System
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – In his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, President Barack Obama is reportedly seeking an additional $5 million to spend on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast.
The money would add onto the $5 million that Congress has already approved for the current fiscal year.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the money is still short of the $16.1 million a year needed for the system to be running in as little as two years. More than a thousand sensors must be installed in California, Oregon and Washington; software needs to be tested and the public must be educated about the system.
An early version of the system gave an early warning, seconds before the magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck Napa last August. BART is also using the system to slow down trains ahead of a quake.
The system was also credited for giving early warnings before several quakes in Southern California last year.
Scientists with UC Berkeley, the U.S. Geological Survey, Caltech and the University of Washington have been working on the system.