ST. GEORGE — Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert unveiled Utah's statewide emergency-preparedness campaign amid sunny skies and warm temperatures, in sharp contrast to the potential disasters that he said could await the state.
"More than half of our population lives along the Wasatch Fault," Herbert said during his remarks at the Utah League of Cities and Towns midyear meeting at the Dixie Center in St. George. "There were 745 earthquakes in Utah last year. A lot of them were small, but it is inevitable that we will have a bigger one."
If the Wasatch Fault unleashed a 7.0 earthquake, an estimated 5,000 people would die and another 65,000 could be injured, Herbert said. Nearly 70 percent of the state's health-care facilities could be damaged or compromised by the quake, he added.
"Neighbors helping neighbors is really the guts of the initiative we're rolling out today," Herbert told hundreds of elected officials and staff members in attendance from cities and towns across the state.
"Be Ready Utah" is a yearlong, 12-step campaign for community emergency preparedness that the state plans to release in three phases. The first phase will include assessing each city or town in the state to measure its current state of readiness.
"Some are in good shape and some are deficient," said Herbert. "We want to have a baseline to measure from and to work with the federal government."
Phase two will involve the governor's Cabinet-advisory team making certain the state's emergency-operations plan mirrors the federal government's emergency-response plan. Phase three will include any needed revisions of state and local preparedness plans to "make sure we work well together," Herbert said.
The campaign also features "12 steps to Emergency Preparedness," a monthly look at ways Utahns can become more involved in their community as it prepares for potential disasters.
"The intent is to make sure we are all prepared in all our responses," said Herbert. "One thing that we learned from Katrina is if we're going to be waiting for the federal government to show up, we'll be waiting too long."
Utah's 242 cities and towns are dealing with problems associated with growth and natural hazards such as landslides and flooding. But they should also be prepared for the unknown, he added.
"Heaven forbid there is a terrorist attack or that some crackpot causes us some grief," Herbert said. "Our communities aren't going to look very kindly on us if we're not prepared."
"Be Ready Utah" is a partnership between the governor's office, the Utah Department of Public Safety, the Utah Emergency Management Association, the Utah Commission on Volunteers and the Utah State Office of Education. To learn more about "Be Ready Utah," visit bereadyutah.org.
E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com