Stillwater’s Emergency Management Office is working with a new list of priorities focused on earthquakes.
Working in unchartered territory, the office developed recommendations based on California protocol, a state with longstanding and time tested earthquake safety practices.
Technician Rob Hill says the office has responded to community need by calling on resources from national and local experts.
“People want to talk about it. They want to know that we’re aware of it, and that we do have a plan in place. Some people just, literally, come by the office and just want to talk earthquakes. ‘What can I do?’ ‘What can my family do?’ And that’s where we direct people to the Red Cross.”
Hill reports a significant rise over the last year in questions by phone and in-person as well as requests for presentations around the city.
For better or worse, Hill has observed a community response arc beginning with panic, peaking at inquisitive, but now settling into apathy as people accept earthquakes as a part of daily life in Oklahoma.
