Nervous in WI but ...

You live in California and should be used to them!

Ah, ha! Therein lies the danger! We get used to moderate earthquakes of 3 or 4. However, this lulls the average person into thinking, "Well, that was a 4 and it wasn't too bad. An 8 must be about twice as large, right?"

WRONG! Most people simply don't understand logarithms. Every unit is 10 times larger than the previous unit. An 8 is not twice as large as a 4. It is 10 to the fourth power times as large, or 10,000 times as more powerful. If I were king of the world, logaritms would be required to come with warning labels when used in the general public.

The State of California spends a small fortune doing its best to help people prepare for the Big One. And virtually no one pays any heed to their protestations. Almost no one lifts a finger to prepare. How much water do you have stored? Flashlights and batteries? Emergency radio? Have you investigated your home for potential earthquake proofing techniques? Sure. Right.

One of the most effective and cheapest things you can do to prepare is to place an old pair of tennies under your bed. Huh? Why? An earthquake strikes in the middle of the night. People jump out of bed and run to check on the kids or the pets or just try to get themselves out of the building. What's wrong with this strategy? There is broken glass scattered about from broken windows and whatever dishes and vases were not secured. The ERs are then filled with people with serious foot lacerations.

But this begs the question, "When is the Big One coming?" No one knows. It could be 500 years from now or it could be tomorrow. However, the scientific community believes there is only about a 7% chance of an 8 or greater earthquake in California in the next 30 years. That's not zero but it is still pretty low. So why worry? Because there is a 99% chance of a 6.7 or greater occuring in the next 30 years. And that is still a very dangerous earthquake.

Check out the 2026 Guide to Earthquake Preparedness, courtesy of the State of California.