Hesperia..a dangerous earthquake zone? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: apartment complex, house, water heater)

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

They do know it's coming before it happens, but in my experience, that 2 or 3 seconds doesn't buy you anything. For the Northridge earthquake, I was working outside near a riverbed. There were dogs barking, frogs croaking and birds doing their thing. Then they all shut up at the same time, which was followed 3 seconds later by me being thrown violently to the ground some 8 feet below me. So I had 3 seconds to say to myself "hmmmm, that's weird, I wonder if there's going to be an eart....."

You must have been working awfully early in the morning because we lived in West Hollywood when it hit and it was dark outside. It was like 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Our neighbor owned a limo company so we and a couple other neighbors went and sat in his limo and listened to the news on the radio.

[Fontucky]

It was 4:31am. By that time I'd been on the job since 10pm

[Twinkle Toes]

Oh ... you work at night! Lucky!!!

[Fontucky]

Not no mo, I'm retarded. I mean retired.... from two careers. But I'm still a night owl.

[Twinkle Toes]

I'm a night owl too.

[sewkitty]

I would not worry about earthquakes as they may occur anywhere in Ca. You should be more concerned about the daily weather. Summers are nearly unbearable due to temperatures well over 100 degrees with little cooling off at night meaning high electric bills for air conditioning and in winter it can be bitter cold and the wind blows constantly.

[Donn2390]

Originally Posted by sewkitty

I would not worry about earthquakes as they may occur anywhere in Ca. You should be more concerned about the daily weather. Summers are nearly unbearable due to temperatures well over 100 degrees with little cooling off at night meaning high electric bills for air conditioning and in winter it can be bitter cold and the wind blows constantly.

It does get hot during the daytime, usually around 100-105 in the daytime. I cools off very nicely at night, unlike the low desert which doesn't cool down.
Homes are well insulated here, and we rarely turn the A/C on. If it gets over 105, we turn the A/C on in the late afternoon.
Bitter cold in the winter...? It gets into the 30's, sometimes on rare occassions it will dip into the 20's. Ask the people in the North and East if that's cold..!
Windy all the time..? Been here four years and haven't seen any more windy days that in OC...

[Twinkle Toes]

It's too cold for a low-desert bird like me, Donn.

[country pride]

Lol, yeah we do get chilly up here. Our warm months are definately warm, though.
Ive been comparing home prices in assorted parts of So-Cal and must say, I dont know how people who live in places like Riverside, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Glendale, can stay on top of things. Maybe they're all doctors and rocket scientists. (?) Yikes!

[adykstra]

I've been living in the Hesperia area at about 4000 foot elevation for quite a long time. Daytime Summer temperatures average in the 90's but humidity is low. Winter temps are usually in the low 50's during the day and in the teens at night. Yes, the wind does blow but for the most part, it's not all that bad.
Regarding the subject here, we are about 12 miles from the San Andreas where it passes through Lone Pine Canyon. Hesperia is on the Continental Shelf and very solid Bedrock. This lends it self to more stability and less intense shaking during earthquakes. The Pacific Plate side of the San Andreas, is the part that is moving, so I suspect the intensity of shaking would be much more severe on that side and the soils on that side are more Aluvial Fan material ground water much closer to the surface. That would tend to present higher risks of liquefaction than what we have on our side of the fault.
I say, buy the house, prepare for the quake by having food, water and cash on hand since you will likely ride it out just fine up here but services will be heavily burdened.