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Sounds like it makes sense for you to not live or visit anywhere where there might be an earthquake regardless of technology.
Yep. My early childhood was in CA, we had earthquake drills, but I never experienced an earthquake in CA. I did experience three, (maybe it was four), earthquakes in Seattle. The first one I remember was a 5 something, and it was my first earthquake. I was in the shower when it started....which I think is about the worst darn place to be...and ran out to my living room (studio, but I called it that anyway), to watch the fish surfing in the 10 gallon tank I had. It scared the snot out of me.
We had some other little ones, and then the one in 2001. We were at work. Everyone started freaking out. I remember a co-worker stood up and started running in place like a cartoon character...I'm not even kidding. If it wasn't so scary, that would have been hilarious. I remember yelling to everyone to get under their desks. Apparently Seattle doesn't have earthquake drills in their schools? I don't know, I never went to school in Seattle, but no one seemed to know what to do. I just yelled it out because that's what we were told to do as kids in school in CA. Everyone goes flying under their desks, some people still talking to travel agents on the phone, (worked for a cruise line at the time), and then we were evacuated. Which I thought was dumb, aren't you NOT supposed to go outside in case of after shocks and stuff falling from buildings?
Then the nightmare of getting home. HOLY carp it took forever. And then of course, you saw all of the destruction, mainly in.....Pioneer Square. You see? My fears were not ridiculous. What happened to the Fenix? You saw. They made it so that no cars could use the viaduct for some time, then it was only cars, no trucks or buses. So again, my fears were not unfounded.
No, I don't like earthquakes. I do not like them at all. I moved to FL after Seattle in 2005. That year we got a lot of hurricanes. We had Katrina, Rita, Wilma...Wilma did a lot of damage, and it was scary, I won't even lie. It was reportedly only going to be a Cat 1 or 2 when it hit us on the beach, so I did not leave. It ended up being a Cat 3. Let me tell you, LEAVE when it's a Cat 3. There was a lot of damage. But you know what? We got warnings. We knew it was coming. We were able to prepare. If you wanted to evacuate, you could evacuate. I was naive because Katrina was my first hurricane ever, and it was a joke. I even remember telling someone that I had seen windier, rainier days in Seattle...so when they said Wilma would be the same Cat, I figured whatever. Even then, that was STILL not as bad as an earthquake.
I am out west again, long story, but I don't intend on staying here. Mainly, and not just because this subject happens to be up on the forum right now, but seriously, it's because I hate earthquakes that much, and I do not trust tunnels, viaducts, double decker bridges or roadway, nor do I trust half of the buildings they've tossed up over the years.
Did you spend all day at the construction site? Did you ask them why no one is there working? Usually there are answers for these questions you don't get when you briefly notice a construction site when driving past it.
Granted I'm talking about New York City but in my area, and this is just an example, it took about 6 years to build a 2 mile stretch of highway where they were able to take the highway out of use. That's right, no traffic and it took forever, The rebuild of an elevated portion of the Henry Hudson Parkway took about three years. In both cases the construction site looked almost abandoned most of the time. More recently a short stretch of the FDR Drive over 23rd Street was taking forever. Finally then Mayor Giuliani started asking questions.When the answers were the usual "the plans were inaccurate, we didn't know what we were going to find," etc. the mayor went ballistic, publicly. The project was done and the travel lanes were reopened, if memory serves me, within two-six months.
It seems to be normal business that a project will start, receive a budget and no one will push it to completion in order to keep the gravy train rolling.
Granted I'm talking about New York City but in my area, and this is just an example, it took about 6 years to build a 2 mile stretch of highway where they were able to take the highway out of use. That's right, no traffic and it took forever, The rebuild of an elevated portion of the Henry Hudson Parkway took about three years. In both cases the construction site looked almost abandoned most of the time. More recently a short stretch of the FDR Drive over 23rd Street was taking forever. Finally then Mayor Giuliani started asking questions.When the answers were the usual "the plans were inaccurate, we didn't know what we were going to find," etc. the mayor went ballistic, publicly. The project was done and the travel lanes were reopened, if memory serves me, within two-six months.
It seems to be normal business that a project will start, receive a budget and no one will push it to completion in order to keep the gravy train rolling.
What two mile stretch of road took 6 years to complete? Were you monitoring these projects 24/7? It is common for heavy traffic routes to do construction at night. Basically what we see might not be what is actually going on.
I heard an interview of a writer who wrote a book about the possibility of a "subduction earthquake" coming to Seattle. If you think New Yorker
They call it the "Cascadia quake." As I understand it, this would be a collision between the tectonic plate that underlies the North American continent, and the plate that underlies the pacific ocean. FEMA projects 13,000 deaths and 20,000 injuries. Presumably anyone in the tunnel(supposing that it is ever actually completed) would die a mercifully quick death. The shaking would last 5 minutes, as opposed to the 30 seconds or so of the 2001 Nisqually quake. If I were younger I would take this as a reason to move out of the Seattle area.
Presumably anyone in the tunnel(supposing that it is ever actually completed) would die a mercifully quick death.
Nah, they'd drown, which apparently isn't a bad way to go if you're going to go, personally however I can think of better ways involving coronaries and attractive young women at venerable age.
I've a friend who is a geophysicist and vulcanologist, I lived in Seattle for 10 years he refused to visit, saying "Anywhere with the plate convergences of Seattle in sight of an active volcano is no place to build a city".
It doesn't help that most earthquake engineers also think that Seattle could not withstand a quake of the size of the 1906 San Francisco quake without major loss of life, never mind a 9.0 like the 1700 Cascadia quake.
I heard an interview of a writer who wrote a book about the possibility of a "subduction earthquake" coming to Seattle. If you think New Yorker
They call it the "Cascadia quake." As I understand it, this would be a collision between the tectonic plate that underlies the North American continent, and the plate that underlies the pacific ocean. FEMA projects 13,000 deaths and 20,000 injuries. Presumably anyone in the tunnel(supposing that it is ever actually completed) would die a mercifully quick death. The shaking would last 5 minutes, as opposed to the 30 seconds or so of the 2001 Nisqually quake. If I were younger I would take this as a reason to move out of the Seattle area.
So you are saying you just learned about Seattle being in a major earthquake zone? These articles come out every few years
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