Randy Baxter holds on for dear life as a simulator shows him just how powerful a magnitude 7 earthquake can be.”It was much stronger than I thought,” the 62-year-old academic tells AFP as he steps out of the machine on the campus of the University of California, Fullerton.Once a year, this specially designed trailer goes on a week-long tour to educate Californians about what to do when the earth begins to move in one of the most seismically active parts of the world.The state lives with the constant knowledge that it could be struck at any minute by “The Big One” — a powerful quake projected to kill 1,800 people, injure 53,000 and cause $200 billion of damage.There are more than 500 active faults in California, which together generate thousands of tremors every year.The majority are small — barely noticed by the 40 million people who live here.But others can be big enough to cause real damage, and California’s Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES) wants people to know what to do.”When you do feel that shaking, we want everybody to drop, cover and hold on,” says Jon Gudel of CAL OES.”It’s exactly what it sounds like: you try to find something sturdy, preferably a table, drop underneath it, cover your head and neck area, and then hold on to that table until the shaking ends.”- Disaster guaranteed – The walls of the quake simulator are covered with photos showing the aftermaths of some of the worst geological disasters to hit California.They include the Great San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed 80 percent of the city in 1906, and the Northridge earthquake in 1994, which killed 72 people around Los Angeles, pancaking elevated highways. Andrea Okoh, who lives along the San Andreas Fault, a scar stretching 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) across the state, admits to being “extremely worried.”The 36-year-old human resources director has bolted her furniture to the wall since an earthquake woke her in the middle of the night in January.”Since I was a child, we’ve had earthquakes, but lately, when we have them, they’re more intense and they’re closer together,” she says. “That is scary.”Geologist Ashleigh Kuiroz says an apparent recent rash of quakes is not an indicator that The Big One is imminent.But in some ways, they are helpful.”They are a great reminder to maybe think about getting an earthquake kit ready for your house,” she says.”Make sure that you have pet food, make sure you have the medication that you need, first aid supplies, things like that.”Organizers also recommend that residents and tourists install the “MyShake” app, which can give a vital few seconds warning of a tremor.Despite decades of study and a global array of sensors, seismologists say it’s impossible to predict when a destructive quake will strike.But the one thing they can say with absolute certainty is that it will definitely happen.”It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’,” says Gudel. “That’s why it’s important to be prepared.”

US President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday he had authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela and said he was considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land in the South American country.Trump’s comments triggered outrage from leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who decried “coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA” and ordered military exercises following a fresh US strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.Republican Trump declined to comment in detail about a New York Times report that he had secretly approved the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela against Maduro.”But I authorized for two reasons really,” he said, before listing familiar talking points accusing Maduro of leading a “narco-terrorist” regime and of releasing prisoners from jails and sending them to the United States.Asked if he had given the CIA authority to “take out” Maduro, Trump replied: “That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”Trump added that he was weighing up whether to expand US military actions against alleged Venezuelan drug cartels to the land after a series of deadly naval strikes on boats.”We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.At least 27 people have been killed in recent US attacks on boats in the Caribbean.Trinidad and Tobago, which is located off the coast of Venezuela, is investigating whether two of those killed were its citizens, officials said Wednesday.Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro recently called on the United Nations to open a “criminal process” against Trump for the strikes, which he believes have also killed Colombians.Experts have questioned the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.- ‘No to regime change’ -Trump’s comments come amid a major US naval build-up in the Caribbean that Washington says is part of an anti-drug operation.But the moves have been widely condemned in Latin America and fears are mounting in Caracas that Trump is seeking regime change.”No to war in the Caribbean… No to regime change… No to coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA,” Maduro said in an address Wednesday to a committee set up after Washington deployed warships in the region.Maduro earlier ordered military exercises in the country’s biggest shantytowns after the latest alleged drug-boat strike on Tuesday, which Trump said had killed six “narcoterrorists.”Under Maduro’s direction, exercises were conducted across the entire Atlantic Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and other military activities are planned in the states on the border with Colombia.In a message on the social network Telegram, Maduro said he was mobilizing the military, police and a civilian militia to defend Venezuela’s “mountains, coasts, schools, hospitals, factories and markets.”Trump accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel — charges Maduro denies.Ahead of ramping up military actions, the US Justice Department in August doubled a bounty for information leading to Maduro’s capture to $50 million.Trump has previously said that he is not looking at regime change in Venezuela, while at the same time accusing Maduro of stealing last year’s presidential election and being “illegitimate.”The pressure on Maduro inched higher last week when US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for leading peaceful resistance to his 12-year rule.Machado dedicated the award to Trump, who had campaigned for the award for himself.