Cheers & Jeers: Electric buses; climate woes The Columbian
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Cheers: To electric school buses. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has proposed the Clean School Bus Act to help school districts transition from diesel buses to electric. The bill would provide $1 billion over five years to cover expenses that many districts cannot afford on their own. “I can think of no better time to talk about how critical it is that we finally make an investment in clean energy,” Murray said.
Vancouver Public Schools last year acquired three electric buses through a grant from the state Department of Ecology, and Murray has pointed to the district in promoting her bill. With electric buses costing up to $400,000 each, compared with about $140,000 for a diesel one, the transition is slow; district officials estimate that each bus will save $5,000 to $10,000 a year in fuel costs. Despite the price tag, working to eliminate carbon emissions from the nation’s 500,000 school buses i
A system already used in California and Oregon, called ShakeAlert, went live in Washington, but third-party apps, which are faster, aren’t available there yet.
UW News
When the Big One hits, the first thing Washington residents notice may not be the ground shaking, but their phone issuing a warning. The U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and the Washington Emergency Management Division on Tuesday, May 4, will activate the system that sends earthquake early warnings throughout Washington state. This completes the tri-state rollout of ShakeAlert, an automated system that gives people living in Washington, Oregon and California advance warning of incoming earthquakes.
“For the first time, advance warning of imminent earthquake shaking will be a reality in our region. Even just seconds, up to a minute of warning is enough to prepare yourself and take cover actions that may spare you from injury or even save your life,” said Harold Tobin, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the PNSN, which operates the seismic monitoring in Washington and Oregon.
Cellphone earthquake alerts debut in Washington with a catch By Sandi Doughton, The Seattle Times
Published: May 3, 2021, 7:57am
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One of the most terrifying things about earthquakes is the way they strike without warning. That’s going to change just a tiny bit in Washington beginning Tuesday.
For the first time, residents will be able to get alerts on their cellphones seconds before the ground under their feet starts shaking enough time, hopefully, to get to a safe spot and avoid injury.
Californians have been tied in to the earthquake early warning network called ShakeAlert since late 2019 and have already received advance notifications of several small-to-moderate quakes. The system went live in Oregon two months ago. Washington’s addition completes the rollout of a technology inspired by networks in Japan and Mexico and developed over the past 15 years by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington, Caltech and other in
Washington State Debuts Cellphone Earthquake Alerts
For the first time, residents will be able to get alerts on their cellphones seconds before the ground under their feet starts shaking enough time, hopefully, to get to a safe spot and avoid injury.
May 03, 2021 •
(TNS) - One of the most terrifying things about earthquakes is the way they strike without warning. That s going to change just a tiny bit in Washington beginning Tuesday.
For the first time, residents will be able to get alerts on their cellphones seconds before the ground under their feet starts shaking enough time, hopefully, to get to a safe spot and avoid injury.