California rolled out the nation's first statewide earthquake warning system on Thursday, designed to detect seismic waves and alert residents through a mobile phone app even before the ground starts shaking.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who urged Californians to download the MyShake app on the anniversary of the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989, boasted the program was more sophisticated than early warning systems already used in Mexico and Japan.
"The price of admission to live here is preparation," the governor told a news conference in Oakland overlooking the freeway bridge built to replace one that collapsed during the Loma Prieta quake, which killed more than 60 people in the San Francisco Bay Area.