very weird dream

[drewkitty]

So I'm on post at a raised floor data center, a place I've never been in real life. There's a red phone on the wall every few hundred feet. We've all been told that it's very important, but that we're not to use it. Unlike nearly everything else, there's no procedures for what to do if it rings.

The phone rings. It has an insistent electronic chirp, very annoying, almost like a buzzer is trying to be a bell after smoking some pot.

I hear it and move towards it. I radio the other guard in the command center. "Do you hear that?" "Yep." "Are you going to answer it?" "No."

It stops ringing. A few seconds later, it starts ringing again.

I pick it up and answer in best professional style.

"[Company] Security, Officer [drewkitty] speaking, San Jose California, non-secure line, how can I help you sir or ma'am?"

"This is Jackie with NMCC. Could you use pre-warning of an earthquake?"

I think about it for a fraction of a second and involuntarily glance around at the server racks. They are mostly well secured. For some reason I think she's calling with a hypothetical. I think of places where we have guards in warehouses with pallet racks.

"Yes. We could." There is a pause for about ten seconds. She says, "OK," and there is another pause.

As the entire building starts shaking and tiles start flying up from the grid, I duck to a nearby doorway and brace myself against the frame. The phone cord is long enough to reach.

"Earthquake, time now!" I say into the phone. I can see from a side window across the complex and cars are bouncing up and down in the distance.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," she says and disconnects.

End dream.



I wake up.

After I wake up, I check
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/San_Francisco.htm just in case. No activity.

"The National Earthquake Information center, US Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, provides earthquake information."

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/who_we_are.php

"The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), US Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, in Golden, CO, provides earthquake information.

"(a) The NEIC is on the NAWAS National Control Circuit and reports all earthquakes felt in the United States and all earthquakes resulting in damage worldwide. NEIC operates during normal business hours except in emergencies when they respond to an alarm. During non-duty hours, the FOC/FAOC may contact the NEIC Duty Officer to advise them of earthquake activity."

In advance?

Comments

[lokiz-mom.livejournal.com]

DING! Time for an earthquake!

yeah...that would kinda freak me out too.

[sarahnade.livejournal.com]

Reverse 911 system in some Santa Clara County cities:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_7402402

EArly Warning of Last Week's Quake (in the 2nd half of the article):
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5736720

[lironess.livejournal.com]

Once when I was at work in Irvine I was listening to a radio station in Pasadena. They got it first and it was a big one. I thought about warning my co-workers, but they already thought that I was really weird. I thought if I told them anything, and they thought that I could predict earthquakes, they just might burn me on a stake. So I let them shake then later told them about the radio.

It is a very bazaar feeling to know it is coming and sit there waiting.

[urox.livejournal.com]

I got dreams like this all the time in Washington before the big one hit up there. And usually within 24 hrs there would be one. I haven't gotten a dream like that *with* an actual follow-up in a long time. The recent one in California hit at least two weeks after my last dream.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

One second's warning for every five miles of depth, to the installation site only. Guaranteed warning of only two seconds, as much as 18 to 20 seconds in an ideal distant scenario. In my dream I had over thirty seconds of warning, if you count when the phone first started ringing.

QuakeGuard is very valuable. It slammed fire station garage doors open just before the Paso Robles quake, which made sure that their relative handful of apparatus was available and not trapped in station.

In practice, activating reverse 911 is not going to be done with humans out of the loop, as it can only be done from the PSAPs directly.

Right now, there are three ways to activate the radio and TV-based Emergency Alert System with humans out of the intermediate loop (i.e without asking broadcasters). Some human has to start this process, however.

1) As triggered by Air Force NORAD (North American Air Defense) through Air Defense Emergency Condition Red. This is not done casually or lightly and is intended to give three to five minutes of warning to the target area in the event of a nuclear strike delivered by aircraft or missile. At least one disaster scenario has surrounded what would happen if a false or malignant Red were to be transmitted and people were to completely panic as a result.

2) As triggered by the White House Communications Agency on orders of the President through FEMA at Mount Weather. This is an audio-only pre-emption to allow the President to directly address the American public. (This is a backup to having the National Press Corps, which travels with the President, simply call their networks and arrange the interruption while the President goes through makeup and preps his speech.)

3) As triggered by the National Weather Service as a retransmission of a severe weather warning or ordered evacuation on the national weather radio system (itself a backup to the broadcast radio network).

Other activations require more humans in the loop, ranging from county and state OES agencies through FEMA and White House Communications Agency.

Primary participating stations in California include:

KCBS 740 (SF)
KFWB 980 (LA)
KFBK 1530 (SAC)

A full list is here: http://eas.oes.ca.gov/PDF/Directory-Web.PDF

Also see http://eas.oes.ca.gov/PDF/Event_Codes.pdf -- Note that there is a code for Earthquake Warning. So when the prediction technology arrives, EAS will be ready.