News release: Magna Earthquake Individual Assistance Remote Inspection Process

Jackie DewolfeDisasters, News releases, Resources

July 22, 2020 SALT LAKE CITY – Due to the nationwide Covid-19 emergency, FEMA is using remote inspections to assess damage to homes in Salt Lake and Davis counties cause by earthquakes between March 18 and April 17. Utahns who applied for federal disaster assistance — and reported that they may not or cannot live at home due to earthquake damage …

4 months later: Did you have damage from the Magna earthquake?

Jackie DewolfeDisasters, Resources

Davis and Salt Lake County residents may be eligible for federal assistance Disaster Assistance steps Register with FEMA at DisasterAssistance.gov or or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired. Help in many languages is also available. Registration takes you through a survey with about 25 questions, asking the location of the home, how many occupants, what kind of …

Storefront roped off with caution tape and bricks broken on the ground.

News release: Salt Lake and Davis County residents with March earthquake losses can register with FEMA

Jackie DewolfeDisasters, News releases, Resources

July 16, 2020 Utah homeowners and renters in Salt Lake and Davis counties who had uninsured losses from the March 18 earthquake may be eligible for federal disaster assistance from FEMA. FEMA has programs that provide financial help with temporary housing expenses, basic home repairs and other essential disaster-related needs. First, if you haven’t already done so, contact your insurance …

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake shakes western Nevada

Jackie DewolfeRecent earthquakes

Early Friday morning, at 5:03 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time, Californians and Nevadans were awakened to shaking from a magnitude 6.5 earthquake with an epicenter in the Soda Spring Valley, about 30 miles west of Tonopah, Nevada. Though the most intense shaking was felt in Nevada and California, a handful of Utahns reported feeling light shaking as well — 300 to …

A clearer look at earthquake faults in Utah

Jackie DewolfeGeology

Thanks to a 4-year effort by the Utah Geological Survey, Utah now has a better look at Wasatch Front faults from southern Idaho to central Utah The overall length of the Wasatch fault, 240 miles, has not changed, but details to the existing faults have been added to the library. We now have 739 mapped miles of fault strands, compared …

3 ways to get the most out of the Great Utah ShakeOut today

Jackie DewolfePreparedness, Recent earthquakes

Why we need an earthquake drill even after so many recent earthquakes Good morning, Utah! We’ve always wondered if an earthquake would happen on the day of the ShakeOut. Well, here we are! There have been more than 1,200 aftershocks following the March 18 Magna earthquake. The most recent felt aftershock was an M4.2 today at 7:41 a.m. With so …

Today’s M4.2 aftershock: Is this normal?

Jackie DewolfeRecent earthquakes

We will continue to update this post with questions and more information. What do we know so far? Utah was shaken again following a magnitude 4.2 aftershock with an epicenter in Magna at 8:56 p.m. Many Utahns are asking if this is normal to have aftershocks almost a month after the main M5.7 earthquake that happened March 18. We received …

Was the March 18, 2020, Magna Earthquake in the Forecast?

Mackenzie CopeGeology, Recent earthquakes

Utah Geological Survey has a 50-year forecast for earthquakes. In 2016, the Working Group on Utah Earthquake Probabilities (WGUEP) published a 50-year forecast for moderate to large earthquakes in the Wasatch Front region. They determined there was a 93% chance of having one or more earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger in that time period. Given that high probability, the …