Earthquake professionals, business and community leaders, emergency managers, and others have joined together to organize Dare to Prepare, a year-long earthquake readiness campaign to raise earthquake awareness and encourage earthquake readiness in Southern California. The campaign is supported with funding from federal, state, and local partners.

Acknowledging that "Shift Happens," the main message of the Dare to Prepare campaign is that if you "Secure Your Space" you can protect yourself, your family, and your property. Secure your space by strapping top-heavy furniture and appliances to walls, adding latches to kitchen cabinets, and securing TVs and other heavy objects that can topple and cause serious injuries. Homes and other buildings should be retrofitted if necessary. These and other actions will decrease your risk of damage or injury, and reduce your need for community resources after the next earthquake.

WHY NOW?
This year is the 150th anniversary of the last great San Andreas earthquake in Southern California, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook the entire region. Prominent scientists are nervous about the potential for another great earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Their concern is shared by emergency managers and others, who all fear major loss of life and property unless we each take action now to be ready. Hurricane Katrina showed the results of failing to be ready for a regional catastrophe and what can happen when a megadisaster pushes society to the breaking point.

HOW?
Components of the year-long Dare to Prepare campaign include:

• www.daretoprepare.org: website with instructions for how to Secure Your Space;
• First Friday Focus: distribution of topical campaign materials (prior to the first Friday of each month, April through December) for use by Alliance partners, the news media, and others;
• Movers and Shakers: leadership group of prominent Southern California elected officials, business and community leaders, and others;
• Local activities: public events throughout the region (presentations, preparedness fairs, etc.), including demonstrations of Big Shaker, a large portable earthquake simulator;
• Media campaign: television, radio, and print advertising, PSAs, on-air interviews, etc.
• Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country: distribution of millions of copies of this comprehensive earthquake science and preparedness handbook;
• Great Southern California Shakeout, a regional public earthquake exercise planned for 2008;
• Additional elements and activities to be added throughout the year...

WHO?
The Earthquake Country Alliance is a public-private partnership of leading earthquake professionals, emergency managers, government officials, business and community leaders, and others, led by Dr. Lucy Jones (United States Geological Survey), Ellis Stanley (City of Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Department) and Prof. Tom Jordan (Southern California Earthquake Center, USC). Partners include the Southern California Association of Governments, the County of Los Angeles, California Geological Survey, Caltech, UCLA, FEMA, California Office of Emergency Services, California Earthquake Authority, American Red Cross, and many others.

YOU!
We are all in this together! The Dare to Prepare campaign brings the southern California community together to "talk about our faults" so we can be ready before future earthquakes. For more information on how to participate, visit www.daretoprepare.org or call 213-740-1560.