Cyndi Loza

Students are prepared for upcoming temblors, Washoe County officials said Monday.

“They feel confident because they know what they’re supposed to do,” said Susan Frank, principal at Winnemucca Elementary School.

The Northwest Reno school practices drills in class and asks students to seek shelter under their desks. But, Frank said, Winnemucca students have felt earthquakes so often the need for drills is not necessary.

“If we don’t have an earthquake that we feel today, it will be the first time in a long time,” Frank said Monday.

Gomm Elementary School Principal Ed Heywood agreed.

“We don’t need to practice,” Heywood said. “They’re getting their practice every time one happens.”

Teachers have also helped answer questions on earthquakes in class, Heywood said.

“Just talking about it and getting out in the open helps them cope with it,” Heywood said.

He said the more students learn about earthquakes, the less anxious they are.

Dale Sanderson, capital projects and facilities management administrator, said all district schools except Robert Mitchell Elementary have a steel-reinforced wall system, “which is what you need in an earthquake.”

The Mitchell school roof is supported by an additional structural system made of wood. The school is the most vulnerable to an earthquake, but the reinforced system would help avoid a “catastrophic collapse of the building,” Sanderson said.

The district has $100 million insurance coverage for earthquake damage, and students also practice evacuation procedures each month.

Schools have sustained minimal damage during the series of quakes that began in late February, officials said. All schools were inspected after the magnitude 4.7 quake Friday. No structural damage has been detected.