Los Angeles County officials are being asked to prepare for the earthquake everyone knows will happen someday but nobody can put on a calendar. Supervisor Kathryn Barger wants the county to examine whether its buildings, hospitals, infrastructure and emergency systems could keep serving residents after a major temblor.
As reported by Los Angeles Daily News, Barger filed a motion titled “Ensuring Earthquake Emergency Readiness in Los Angeles County.” The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hear the motion Tuesday, with county staff expected to deliver a multipronged readiness report by Sept. 29.
The proposed work would identify gaps in county facilities, hospitals and older concrete office buildings, while also examining emergency-service delivery, infrastructure repairs and resident safety. Staff from the county’s Office of Emergency Services, Fire Department and Public Works would consult scientists from Caltech and UCLA, including seismologist Lucy Jones, while modeling preparations for a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
A Recent Study Raised Attention But Not An Alarm
The timing follows a University of Hawaiʻi study that found modeled tectonic stress along parts of the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems has reached its highest level in at least 1,000 years. The researchers said Cajon Pass could sometimes allow a rupture to move between the two fault systems, potentially affecting heavily populated areas across Southern California, according to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
That finding does not mean a major earthquake is imminent. The Daily News reported that Jones said the study’s data was not new and that the timing of the next earthquake remains unknowable; in other words, Southern California is not waiting for a seismic alarm clock to ring.
The county’s own emergency-management office describes its job as coordinating preparedness, response and recovery across 88 cities, 137 unincorporated communities and hundreds of special districts. A new earthquake plan would put that existing framework through a more specific stress test: Can the county keep hospitals operating, move emergency resources, repair damaged infrastructure and communicate with residents when multiple systems are failing at once?
Southern California Has Been Here Before
The region’s most recent large-scale damaging earthquake was the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994, which killed 72 people, injured about 9,000 and caused roughly $25 billion in damage, according to the Daily News. Northridge struck on a blind thrust fault beneath the northern San Fernando Valley rather than on the San Andreas Fault, a reminder that earthquake planning cannot focus on just one famous line on the map.
The U.S. Geological Survey describes the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake as a magnitude 7.9 event that ruptured about 225 miles of the San Andreas Fault. That historic rupture stretched toward the San Bernardino area, underscoring why a major Southern California earthquake would be a regional emergency rather than a problem confined to one city.
County Plans More Public Preparation Ahead Of ShakeOut
For residents, the county already recommends creating household plans, securing heavy objects, signing up for alerts and keeping enough food, water and medication for at least 10 days. The county’s Ready LA County earthquake guidance also urges people to practice Drop, Cover and Hold On and avoid entering damaged buildings after the shaking stops.
The proposed plan would add a year-round public engagement campaign and an online “Know Your Risk” portal for residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations. Multilingual outreach is expected to build toward the Great ShakeOut drill on Oct. 15, when Californians will once again practice the potentially life-saving move of getting low, taking cover and holding on.
The official Great California ShakeOut calendar lists Oct. 15, 2026, as this year’s statewide drill date. Barger’s motion is ultimately less about predicting the next earthquake than making sure Los Angeles County is not caught trying to invent its response after the ground starts moving.
