On April 14, 2025, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California with an epicenter near Julian, about 70 km from San Diego. Thanks to ShakeAlert, the USGS-developed early warning system, residents received alerts up to 14 seconds before the seismic waves hit – just enough time to take cover and protect themselves.
ShakeAlert uses a dense network of over 2,000 seismographs and GPS sensors to detect the fast-traveling P-waves that precede the more damaging S-waves in an earthquake. Once the system confirms a significant seismic event, it immediately sends alerts via smartphones and other platforms to areas not yet affected. In this case, people in cities like San Diego, Escondido, and Santee were notified just seconds in advance, but those seconds made a critical difference.
This real-world application highlights the core principles of SYNERGIES: fast, coordinated communication; community engagement; and shared situational awareness in disaster response. Much like ShakeAlert, SYNERGIES supports the development of interoperable systems and early warning tools that can help communities prepare, respond, and recover more effectively from emergencies.
Systems like ShakeAlert – and their counterparts in many different countries – reinforce the importance of real-time data exchange, shared operational pictures, and pre-established protocols, all of which are at the heart of SYNERGIES. By connecting public authorities, emergency services, and the public through trusted digital frameworks, we can build more resilient, better-prepared societies.
