Finding Faults: Pali High Writer Warned of Earthquake Dangers in 1977

By DEAN CHIEN | Intern

The Great California ShakeOut on Oct. 15 is a reminder to residents of one of the greatest dangers to Pacific Palisades and all of California: earthquakes.

In the Palisades, a large earthquake could not only trigger landslides but also cause liquefaction, a terrifying phenomenon in which water-saturated soil behaves like a liquid, and ground fractures to open throughout an affected area.

This danger is nothing new.

In fact, two Palisades Charter High School Tideline writers—Ben McCarthy and Chuck Reichman—wrote about the subject in the school newspaper in 1977.

McCarthy’s words in that article still resonate today: “Damaging earthquakes have and will continue to be part of California’s natural environment.”

In the article, McCarthy criticized his school for its inexcusable lack of a dedicated earthquake safety and preparedness plan.

Although he acknowledged teachers having some notion of what to do during such a disaster, McCarthy contended that the school administration had failed to task staff with specific responsibilities.

Perhaps worst of all, McCarthy suggested that the student body was woefully uninformed and unprepared in the event of an earthquake.

“All we had was basic duck and cover,” McCarthy told the Palisadian-Post in a recent interview. “And that was for nuclear weapons.”

Today, Pali High has a comprehensive earthquake safety and preparedness plan compliant with state standards.

Regular drills keep current students and staff far better prepared and informed than their predecessors 38 years ago.

This is evidenced in drills taking place at the high school today, Oct. 15, as part of the Great California ShakeOut earthquake preparedness day.

Back in the 1970s, McCarthy believed he had unearthed an exceptional reason to be concerned over Pali High’s safety in the event of an earthquake.

While viewing fault maps provided to him by a seismologist family friend, McCarthy spotted what he believed to be a fault that allegedly ran directly through his high school. Citing cracks “five to six feet in size” at the base of the auditorium as further evidence of the fault, McCarthy demanded school administration do something about the issue.

McCarthy’s belief that an active fault ran under the school has since been debunked.

Modern fault charts reveal the closest faults to Pali High lie in Santa Monica and off the coast—too close for comfort, but not threatening to split the campus in half either.

State geological hazard maps of the Topanga Quadrangle, an area encompassing the entirety of the Palisades, show risk for earthquake-induced landslides down Temescal Canyon and a potential liquefaction zone at Temescal Gateway Park. Yet despite being surrounded by these natural hazards, the Pali High campus itself is built on stable ground.

The same could be said of the Palisades as a whole: surrounded by potential landslide and liquefaction zones, but built mostly upon relatively safe ground.

As such, in the event of a major earthquake, the Palisades’ primary problem could be isolation. Major routes into and out of the Palisades such as Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard could be damaged or partially destroyed by dramatic ground movement and associated landslides.

Both of the Palisades’ Fire Stations 23 and 69 would deploy immediately during a major earthquake to assess damage along specific routes, then relay this information to the Los Angeles Fire Department to determine the areas of most critical need for the city.

“The stations will be empty,” LAFD Battalion Fire Chief Antoine McKnight warned during a Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting last December. “Don’t expect to go there and find someone.”

Although we cannot control the next earthquake to strike the Palisades, our actions as a community to be prepared in the event of a geological disaster will go a long way toward keeping ourselves safe.

McCarthy’s 1977 article reminds us of this basic message, that our “experience with earthquakes has taught us that appropriate actions by individual citizens can prevent loss of life.”

Today, McCarthy’s stance is no different. Not with the probability of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or higher striking California within the next 30 years listed at 99.7 percent certainty by USGS seismologists.

The 1994 Northridge Earthquake that resulted in $20 billion in property damage and claimed 57 lives was also a 6.7 on the Richter scale.

“We live in earthquake country,” McCarthy said, “We have to be prepared.”