Earthquake Experts Tell Latino Community How To Get Ready For The Big One

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Southern California's best-known quake experts led a day of earthquake preparedness talks, demonstrations, workshops and information Saturday in the Cypress Park area.

The event was geared to the Latino community and held at the Sonia Sotomayor School of History and Dramatic Arts on San Fernando Road.

According to event organizers, the goal of the event was to empower Latinos to better understand earthquake risks and work together to make communities earthquake resilient.

All information at the event was in Spanish, with some English translation. Organizers said they wanted to answer questions like "How do I protect my family, my business and my community?"

CBS2's Adrianna Weingold talked to organizers and attendees.

It's been decades since the last big earthquake hit Los Angeles. Now experts from Caltech are making sure the Latino community knows what to do to make it out safely when another big quake hits.

"These misconceptions or behaviors that work in Latin America but don't work here because buildings are different here, earthquakes are different here," says Pablo Ampuero, professor of seismology at Caltech.

It's the first time Caltech has hosted an event like this, where the community engaged directly with scientists and experts, asking questions and getting important answers.

Marlene Miranda worries about her mother and 7-year-old son. She says she feels better now that they know what to do in an emergency.

"She lives on the second floor and I don't know how they're going to react because it could happen at any time so just knowing that she came here and she's better prepared and she's thinking about it, it's going to help a lot," Miranda said.

The event stressed the importance of being prepared for disaster. And how earthquakes here in the US are different from those in other parts of the world.

"When you look at what the earthquake will do to us, it probably won't kill us, but it's going to make life really miserable. We're going to not have power or water, you won't be able to go to work, you may not have a place to live," said Dr. Lucy Jones, the well-known seismologist.

Dr. Jones says one of the most important steps we can take is to build stronger community networks so people have the resources they need when the next big earthquake hits.

The information fair was sponsored by Caltech.