

Moving to the valley: what about "The Big One"? - Tichy

This might be the most stupid question ever, but I must admit it bothers me at least a little bit. What do people living in the valley now think/do about the threat of a really big earthquake in the next couple of decades? I am really risk averse when it comes to life threatening things...<p>I just googled and found an article which seems to say that scientists don't really know anything (there might be an earthquake, or there might not be an earthquake). Or maybe all houses in that region are already built to withstand the projected impact? What about floods?
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mechanical_fish
Finally, my partner in paranoia appears! :)

Yes, the big earthquake will arrive someday, and various things are going to
fall down. Read all about it in this harrowing guide:

<http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/15/>

Yes, all of news.yc is in denial, which is why they conspicuously failed to
vote up this guide when I posted it the first time. Don't think I didn't
notice. But I will have the last laugh! My vengeance will be AWESOME to
behold! THE TEMBLORS WILL DESTROY YOU ALL, AND YOUR LITTLE MACBOOKS TOO!!
HAHAHAHAAA!!!

Having said that: if you've read the guide, avoided buying a house in my old
neighborhoods (it's a good time to rent anyway, for completely unrelated
financial reasons), stocked up on emergency water, and installed proper
hardware to prevent your power tools from falling off the garage shelf onto
your sports car (or your head), I think the odds are that you'll survive the
earthquake in fine style. In the meantime, every day you spend in Omaha,
Nebraska instead of the Valley is probably costing you money. And, of course,
there are tornadoes, which they don't have in California.

I doubt you can afford the houses that get really punished by the mudslides, I
don't think they have floods in San Jose (Sacramento, maybe), and the
volcanoes (volcanoes?!) are a thousand miles to the north.

~~~
Tichy
Very interesting, thanks. I just mentioned volcanoes as another example for
hazardous environments that people still voluntarily live in.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Somehow those volcanoes just arrived in this conversation out of the blue. I
figured they were just an example, but I was slightly worried that your
knowledge of California might be derived entirely from Hollywood. ;)

The good thing about volcanoes is that you do get a certain amount of warning,
these days, before the big one comes. Earthquakes continue to defeat the
geologists, though.

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danielha
I have lived in the Bay Area since birth and it has never crossed my mind to
be wary of earthquakes.

If you're considering packing up your life and starting anew here, earthquakes
should not be the blocker.

~~~
Tichy
What about volcanoes, or hurricanes? I am just not used to having my house
blown to pieces on a regular basis? But I guess it solves the "Stuff
problem"...

I am not sure it soothes me that the earthquake possibility never crossed your
mind. Maybe it is just denial? The problem being that it is such a rare event
- but just like in "Fooled By Randomness", bad luck might still strike after
30 years of nothing happening?

Or are you just putting faith into your parents decision to move there before
your birth, presumably they already weighed the risk for you? And the millions
of other people living there, I guess - is it a sort of collective "my
neighbors must know what they are doing" thing?

What about New Orleans, was that a comparable situation (threat known for
years, and eventually disaster struck - how worried were people in the years
before)?

