By Nathan C. Gonzalez
The Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — By midmorning on Thursday, dozens of Utah's emergency response leaders were hunkered down in a basement north of the state Capital.

Soon after, maps were hung, computers were fired up and the state's Emergency Operations Center sprung to life. The task at hand for the transportation, health and National Guard officials gathered inside was to direct the response to a large-scale, catastrophic earthquake.

Though the 6.0 quake struck Wells, Nev., near the Utah-Nevada state line, the incident provided an excellent opportunity to practice for a real-world scenario.

"The first thing that went through my head was that it could have been 200 miles east of where it was, in which case you have a real problem in a major metropolitan area," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said. "Then you put the best training everyone's been subjected to to the test. It's a wake-up call."

Shortly after the quake, the state's director of Homeland Security, Col. Keith Squires, and others began assessing whether the state was affected by the quake.

Officials then activated the Emergency Operations Center, or EOC, at level 2. That brought together several state agencies that prepare for such events.

"I have great confidence the state of Utah is in great hands, should we have to respond to such an incident," Squires said.

But for Bob Carey, the state's Earthquake Preparedness Program manager, it is simply a waiting game of when the next major quake will strike.

"We will take a good, hard look at this," Carey said of the Wells quake.

"They are all random. There is no way to know when the next one will hit. It's like a ticking bomb."

Many old buildings are made of brick and other materials, and are the most prone to damage. In the weeks before the Wells quake, Rep. Larry B. Wiley, D-West Valley City, introduced a bill that would require all public and charter schools to study whether their buildings are ready for a major quake.

"We are having seismic activity that you folks need to take serious," Wiley told the House Government Operations Committee on Thursday.

A recent federal study showed that if a 7.0 earthquake rocked Salt Lake County, it could kill more than 500 schoolchildren, Wiley said. About 58 percent of the state's schools were built before the 1970s and are not ready for such an event.

His bill, House Bill 162, would set aside $500,000 to study whether schools are structurally sound and establish a seven-person Public School Seismic Safety Committee to oversee the study.

The staff of the State Emergency Preparedness Center work Thursday in the basement of the State Capitol Complex. In the background is a photo of damage caused by the 6.0 earthquake centered near Wells, Nev.

Copyright 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune