United States Geological Survey (USGS) seismologist Lucy Jones talks about her work with the city of Los Angeles and how it bridges the gap between seismic science and public action. She discusses the Resilience by Design program within the Department of Water and Power.
Excerpt from Lucy Jones' interview with Jim McKay
"Probably the most important part of the water plan actually was the creation of what we call the Resilience by Design program within the Department of Water and Power.
There is a full-time person in charge of seismic resilience for the system developing these retrofit projects and evaluating new projects as they come forward.
When we did our model of a big earthquake, fire following the earthquake doubled the losses and business disruption doubled the losses. Business disruption was primarily from lack of water. Lack of electricity would also do it, but it looks like we would be out of water for a much longer time.
Then there is the really big issue: Here in Southern California we get a large percentage of our water from outside the region. Last year 88 percent of its water came from outside the region and every drop of that had to cross the San Andreas Fault to get to us. There are four aqueducts serving Southern California and every one of them crosses the fault."