Ever worry about LA Earthquake risk? (San Diego, San Francisco: insurance, lofts, condos)

[Hungry For Cheese]

The risk of earthquakes is never a worry to me. I never think about it. I'd be more prone to worrying some gangbanger is going to shoot me or some rich person in their expensive car is going to crash into me while talking on their cell phone.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by cre8

"Leveled or flattened"? Not so sure that's exactly the prediction. If deciding between LA or SF regarding a "big one" on the San Andreas, I'd choose LA since the San Andreas runs directly through SF. That said, LA has smaller faults under it that could produce some serious destruction.

The San Andreas isn't really much of a problem for L.A. (it's too far away) but the Newport Inglewood fault (so called because it passes through Inglewood, and goes into the Pacific in Newport Beach) is something to worry about - the 1933 Long Beach quake was on this fault, and a "big one" on Newport Inglewood
would do a lot more damage to L.A. than the San Andreas (considering that UCLA, Century City, Cedars Sinai, and LAX are right on this fault....)

[Keithns]

I'm an L.A. native and I only remember two serious quakes, Sylmar in 1971 and Northridge in 1994. The others have been too small to remember. All serious and medium quakes around L.A. happen in the northern, north-eastern, or eastern parts of L.A. County and beyond. The rest of us seem to barely feel or only hear about them. Its real easy and common in L.A. to live so far from a quake, that the distance buffers the effects of it. When the Northridge quake deleted apt. houses 1st floor and made the 2nd floor the 1st, I found that one video tape fell to my floor, and it was balanced on the edge of the shelf anyway. I live about 30 miles from Northridge near the south-west corner of the county.
Hurricane and flood country endure much more frequent and serious damages.
http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs.html

[Yetti0]

Originally Posted by hedgefundpirate

do any of you ever think about the possibility that Los Angeles will be leveled by a big earthquake.Is Southern Cali more at risk than San Francisco? I wonder if its only a matter of time before Los Angeles is flattened by a quake because of the many fault lines.Would like to hear your thoughts on earthquake risk and how you deal with it.

Watch the weather channel and the history channel they discuss california earthquakes WITH scientific facts.. not only major quakes in the future as many have not been recorded since before the 19th c.. but also major tsunamis. short range and long range. The weather channel and history channel's reports are based on fact. California is a new state adn their predictions on those shows are mathematically and scientifically accurate.

[RisingSun333]

I'm from Japan, where we've had pretty much every disaster known in the human history (that's true...including man-made ones like atomic bombs). I grew up in the suburbs of Tokyo, where earthquakes were (and still are) weekly (if not daily) routines. Spending several hours in a 150% overcrowded commuting train to the center of Tokyo every day, I always had this chatastrophic scenarios on my mind (like, a big shaking hits Tokyo suddenly. My train derails and all the skyscrapers collapse on me.....). It's almost like imagining yourself in a crash position in an airplane going down rapidly towards the ground. Unfortunately, we also have had this ongoing tension between North and South Korea, as well. Japan is localted very very close to North Korea. Being pushed and shoved in a commuting train, I always had this fear of either being crushed to death from an earthquake or being wiped off instantly by a nuclear missile launched from North Korea. Now I live in this rural town of Ohio (where there is relatively less risk of natural disasters than Tokyo, but at the same time, there're none else here, either), and I can talk about my days in Tokyo more objectively. But I have to say that I truly understand both seemingly-opposite attitudes of "I'm worried and trying to figure out the way to deal with it" vs "I just try not to think about it. After all, life is full of risks anyway". I've been there.

[CourtneyW]

Wow...see thats one thing i worry about LA. Like i'm sure earthquakes aren't too frequent over there but i know that they can happen. I wouldn't know what to do. I mean i'm from "Tornado Alley", AL. I went through the worst tornado our town has had in decades about 7 years ago..i was 10 years old and in the house by myself and survived the whole thing. But we're use to it..ever year when tornado season comes we all know what to do...but an earthquake? How do you prepare for one of those? In a tornado you just build a safe room in your house and you're all set...you may have to rebuild your house if it gets totaled..but you'll definitely be safe and alive. But earthquakes sort of scare me! You don't know when it's going to come until it does and then you could like fall through the EARTH!!!

[KnoxTown]

Originally Posted by CourtneyW

Wow...see thats one thing i worry about LA. Like i'm sure earthquakes aren't too frequent over there but i know that they can happen. I wouldn't know what to do. I mean i'm from "Tornado Alley", AL. I went through the worst tornado our town has had in decades about 7 years ago..i was 10 years old and in the house by myself and survived the whole thing. But we're use to it..ever year when tornado season comes we all know what to do...but an earthquake? How do you prepare for one of those? In a tornado you just build a safe room in your house and you're all set...you may have to rebuild your house if it gets totaled..but you'll definitely be safe and alive. But earthquakes sort of scare me! You don't know when it's going to come until it does and then you could like fall through the EARTH!!!

I'm from Northwest TN. I know what you mean, tornadoes are crazy.

[Paula Lynn]

Originally Posted by Hungry For Cheese

The risk of earthquakes is never a worry to me. I never think about it. I'd be more prone to worrying some gangbanger is going to shoot me or some rich person in their expensive car is going to crash into me while talking on their cell phone.

I couldn't agree more.

[Jakehorror]

That's the first thing people say to me when they find out I'm moving to California, "They are gonna sink into the ocean any day now" or "Aren't you afraid of all those earthquakes and fires and gay people?"

Honestly, I'm much more afraid of all these damn Tornado's we have been getting. The town 15 miles south of me just got leveled a few weeks ago by a twister. 1000's out of power, all the factories destroyed, it's a mess there. EVERY area has something to worry about.

Believe it or not Indiana is on one of the worlds largest fault lines, it's not very active though so nobody talks about it. If it ever IS active the entire state will be leveled by the looks of the magnitude it showed on Discovery. I have felt little tremors here from time to time but nothing big. Tornado's on the other hand; you can't truly be afraid of them until you are being chased by one. Feels like a big demon is right on your tail!

[Roma]

I think about them and I prepared my home as much as I could in case an earthquake hit. I lived in Northridge during the 1994 earthquake so I saw first hand the devastation. I was a victim of one. I lost my apartment (condemned) and the building where I worked in Simi was condemned. So yes I do think about the risks. But I don't worry enough about them to not want to move back to California.

I live in Texas now, talk about worry, we have practically every disaster here you can think of. I have never seen so many people die in a rain storm in my life!! Every time now when they say on the news a storm is coming I just think of who might die in it. It's sad because someone always does (you here about them on the news).