Quake gave Utah a 'wake-up call' for planning

While Thursday's earthquake didn't hit Salt Lake City with near the same intensity as Wells, Nev., it still gave some a bit of a scare, especially those in the city's public safety building.

A couple of dozen people voluntarily evacuated from Salt Lake police headquarters, on the corner of 200 South and 300 East, after the temblor shook the building, causing some of the doors to close.

"It was enough that people were concerned," said Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank. "In light of all the building concerns, they actually left."

State officials, meanwhile, were closely watching response to the Nevada quake not only to offer assistance if needed, but also to learn how to improve their own plans — especially on how to respond to quakes in remote areas with limited resources.

The state activated its Emergency Operations Center at the State Office Building, and throughout the day had agencies such as Homeland Security, Health, the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah National Guard participating and preparing to offer aid in Nevada, if requested.

In the afternoon, the center expanded operations in a two-hour exercise to give all affected state agencies a chance to show what they would do if the quake had hit here.

"I am confident the state of Utah is in good hands if we had to respond to such an incident," Keith Squires, director of state Homeland Security, said after the exercise.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday that the Nevada earthquake should serve as a reminder to Utah.

"It is absolutely the case that this is, in a sense, a wake-up call," the governor said during his monthly press conference broadcast on KUED Channel 7. "How prepared are we at every level?"

That includes public schools. Huntsman said there's no reason schools shouldn't be as safe in an earthquake as the state Capitol, which recently underwent a multi-year retrofit and renovation costing in excess of $200 million.

"This will probably spark a healthy debate about how safe our schools actually are," he said.

State computer modeling has shown that a magnitude 7.0 quake in Salt Lake County could kill 700 students and teachers, and injure another 13,000.