EDITORIAL: Shake up Trump budget; restore earthquake early warning system funding

Feb. 24--Talk about misplaced budget priorities.

President Trump proposes $3 billion next fiscal year for his precious border wall. But he has rejected a $10 million request to help complete the nation's earthquake early-warning system.

It's embarrassing. Mexico, Japan ,Taiwan, China, Italy, Turkey and Romania all have seismic alert programs that rapidly detect earthquakes and reduce death tolls. But the most technologically advanced country in the world can't find the money in a $4.4 trillion budget to complete its ShakeAlert program.

We're talking about saving lives in a disaster we know is inevitable. Seismologists say there is a 72 percent probability of an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater in the Bay Area in the next 25 years.

We know what damage that could do. A total of 63 people died and 650 people were injured during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, which caused an estimated $7.4 billion in damage.

With an alert system, San Jose residents could have had a 20-second warning and Oakland residents 45 seconds, enough time to take cover before the impact of the 6.9 earthquake was felt.

But Trump isn't interested. He's more fixated on his wall while, ironically, it's Mexico that has its priorities straight. That country built the world's first earthquake warning system in 1991 and continues adding funding to expand it.

As a result, Mexico City residents had nearly a minute prior warning of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Feb. 18 southeast of Acapulco.

Mexico isn't the only country with such a life-saving system. Japan built the most sophisticated program in the world in 1997 following the magnitude-6.9 Kobe earthquake. As a result, in 2011 underground sensors there detected the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power station.

The warning system sent out text messages to millions of Japanese people and private businesses within seconds. That gave Japanese officials enough time to slow or stop high-speed rail trains. Japanese officials estimate that the warning system has already paid for itself many times over in reduced damage costs.

Dave Croker, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park, estimates that $40 million-$50 million is needed on top of the $10 million budget request to fully complete this country's ShakeAlert system. The cost of operating and maintaining it is expected to be about $20 million a year.

The money would pay to fully outfit 1,500 stations with seismic sensors needed to provide coverage up and down the West Coast, where earthquakes in the United States most often strike.

The USGS has enough working stations in the Bay Area to begin a limited public rollout this fall to government agencies, emergency first responders, hospitals and schools, Croker says.

Eventually, the alerts would be made available to third-party app providers, who would be responsible for developing software needed to send warnings to websites and smart phones.

It won't stop the devastation, but it will save lives. California's congressional delegation needs to give the Trump administration a good shaking and restore the funding to complete the earthquake early-warning system.

___

(c)2018 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

Visit the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) at www.eastbaytimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.