Call For Early Earthquake Warning System

A top US politician says it is "mystifying" that the country has not paid to establish an earthquake warning system which he says will save thousands of lives.

Members of Congress are calling on Barack Obama to find the money to make a prototype system currently in use in a university lab ready for public use.

Experts say California is "ten months pregnant" for the so-called Big One, an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more than could cause catastrophic damage and loss of life.

But scientists at the California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, say their warning system - which could deliver precious seconds for preparation - could be expanded along the vulnerable west coast with the right investment.

The odds are that the nightmare scenario depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster San Andreas - a reference to the 800-mile long San Andreas Fault - could become real life for a huge part of the US.

Thomas Heaton, a professor of seismology, told Sky News: "We're trying to make it so that it is a functioning system but at this point the budget to actually turn it into a system that we would unleash on all Californians has not been approved so it is up to the politicians."

The system would enable emergency services to prepare, trains to slow down, surgeons to stop sensitive operations and everyone else to take cover.

Prof Heaton added: "Someday in our future we may have a very serious earthquake out there and I'm sure when that happens all of us will lament the fact that we hadn't done more to be ready for it."

The issue has prompted a group of members of congress to call on Mr Obama to find the $16m (£10.7m) a year needed to fund the system.

Adam Schiff, a Democrat congressman who represented a district around Hollywood, told Sky News: "We'll all be kicking ourselves if we're pennywise but pound-foolish.

"Frankly it is mystifying to me to come from a technology centre like California with Silicon Valley and where the US Geological Survey and Caltech have developed a lot of this technology, and we don't have it in place when it is already working in Mexico and Japan and other countries are far ahead of where we ought to be."

The last major earthquake in the Los Angeles area - measured at magnitude 6.7 - struck in January 1994, killing 57 and injuring 5,000 people and causing damage estimated at $40bn (£26.9bn).