Moving to the valley: what about "The Big One"? | Hacker News Reader

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

1 pointTichy5 comments

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...

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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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.

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

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.

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.

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)?

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