By Mary O’KEEFE

Those in Los Angeles County now have an early warning earthquake system that can be downloaded on Apple and Android phones.

On Twitter, Mayor Eric Garcetti invited cellphone users to download the app. The system will be triggered by ShakeAlert, the U.S. Geological Survey early warning system.

The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system will send messages that an earthquake has been detected and “may affect you,” according to the app.

The app states this is not an earthquake prediction system but an early warning program and will only work in Los Angeles County. Although the app does not have to be open for users to receive the warning, they must set the phone’s location services to “always on” to receive the ShakeAlert.

The system is meant, according to the app, to help provide alerts for the user’s safety and recommends it be used with common sense to stay safe. The app also gives tips on how to prepare for an earthquake, provides an earthquake alert map and allows the user to view the locations of recent earthquakes.

A press conference was held in October 2018 announcing that ShakeAlert had gone live, but the app had not yet been released. The project has been in development since 2006 and has been through three Administrations of budget cuts and eventual partial funding, getting closer to going live.

ShakeAlert is an early warning system designed to register earthquakes at the moment the shaking begins, then pass along notifications to receptor systems up and down the coast from California to Washington. These receptor systems are specific to whichever service they will be developed for, be it for slowing Metro trains or shutting off gas lines automatically in large buildings or even giving surgeons a few seconds of warning during surgery to remove themselves, protecting the patient as best as they can.

  Mary Okeefe