BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 April is Earthquake Preparedness Month, and with constant seismic activity in California, both experts and officials want the Kern County community to be ready.<\/p>\n
Matthew Herman, an assistant professor at CSU Bakersfield, said Kern County is on the boundary of two tectonic plates.<\/p>\n
NICU alumni celebrate reunion at Dignity Health <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo if you go west of here, you get to the Pacific plate right here, we\u2019re on the North American plate and they\u2019re trying to move past each other. But along their boundary, which we know is the San Andreas fault, they\u2019re stuck and they can\u2019t move past each other,\u201d Herman said.<\/p>\n Herman has studied seismology for years. While Kern County isn\u2019t directly on the San Andreas Fault, it has seen its fair share of quakes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was one that had a magnitude 7.5 in 1952,\u201d said Herman. \u201cIt destroyed parts of downtown Bakersfield and kind of leveled Tehachapi as well. So this was a significant earthquake. I\u2019ve had conversations with people, retirees who were in that earthquake as children and talk about how that event just tossed them from wall to wall.\u201d<\/p>\n Near Japan, a 7.7 magnitude quake struck just this week. Earthquakes can\u2019t be predicted \u2014 but you can prepare for them, Herman said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to be able to go back in your house or if your electricity, water, gas lines are going to be working. So you want to have things like a go bag that\u2019s got documents for you that\u2019s got closed, that\u2019s got some food for a few days. You want to make sure you have access to water. So you want to have this go bag. You also want to have a plan to prepare,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n