Desmond Meagley
The Peralta Community College District will initiate an emergency drill Thursday at 10:16 a.m. as part of an international earthquake preparedness event.
“[Peralta] will test our emergency communication system, Rave, by sending you all a text and email message advising you of the Great Shakeout emergency earthquake test,” the district’s department of community safety wrote in an official announcement emailed to the community on Oct. 9.
The email asked readers to observe “appropriate earthquake safety recommendations” and make note of any additional information provided by their home campuses.
The district-wide drill coincides with International Shakeout Day, an initiative to promote earthquake safety which is sponsored in part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Science Foundation. International Shakeout Day occurs on the third Thursday of Oct. every year.
An official website for the event states that nearly 53 million participants globally have registered for the 2025 annual drill.
10 million of those participants are in California, more than any other U.S. region listed on the website. Bay Area residents alone account for nearly 1.5 million of them.
The San Francisco Bay Area sits on top of several tectonic fault lines within the San Andreas fault system. A 2002 assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey projected that the Bay Area faced a 62% chance to experience an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 or greater – strong enough to cause damage to buildings – before 2032.
According to the California Department of Conservation website, researchers consider the Hayward Fault to be one of the most dangerous in the world due to its level of activity and proximity to a densely populated region. The fault runs directly underneath many major East Bay cities, including Oakland and Berkeley,
“Here in the East Bay, we live in an earthquake zone, so it’s important that we all know what to do to keep as safe as possible during a quake,” the district’s email announcement noted. It advised recipients to keep their contact information up-to-date with the district in order to receive security updates.
More information about International Shakeout Day in California, or The Great California Shakeout, is available on the official website.