Ask HN: Are you afraid of the “big one” in California? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are you afraid of the “big one” in California?

8 pointsmaclo5 comments

I'm a developer living in California. While I enjoy many things here, news of overdue earthquakes like this one [1] scares the hell out of me. I really want to settle down, but the idea of paying for a house in a very expensive and earthquake-prone state really troubles me.

I work remotely and as a immigrant I have no family to hold on to. So I can live in another state if I want. Still, I like California (after spending time in several other states) and I guess I'm looking for a reason not to have to leave.

Do you scare of earthquakes? If you do, what keep you from moving already (except for obvious reasons like jobs and family)? If you work remotely and can live anywhere in the US [2], where would you live?

[1] The Really Big One http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

[2] If you think another country is better, please check out this question instead https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10037690

Honestly, if you're well prepared and live/work in buildings that have been seismically retrofitted, you're probably better off in an earthquake than most other natural disasters. San Francisco is making a lot of progress in terms of earthquake preparedness (recently passed a soft-story ordinance, lots of new building codes around earthquakes), and a lot of the infrastructure has been retrofitted for earthquakes fairly recently (bay bridge, transbay tube...).

My advice would be to put together a good earthquake preparedness kit, move to an apartment that has been seismically retrofitted, make sure your big appliances are bolted to the wall, and move on with your life. Plenty of other things to spend your time worrying about.

Many years ago, after agonizing over one too many flood victim stories, I went looking for a "safe" place to live. To my chagrin, I learned that humans habitually live near water so they don't die of thirst and can also grow crops. They also use water as a means of transport. Thus, most development is in areas at some risk of flood. Further investigation showed that every place has some kind of natural disaster. You can kind of choose which one bothers you less, but you cannot escape them. The Midwest has tornadoes. The East Coast has hurricanes. The far north has blizzards and ice storms. Etc. Etc.

I like California. My health is better here than elsewhere. For now, I expect to be here for the foreseeable future.

Even if you find a place that's free of most foreseeable natural catastrophes (my own homeland, Uruguay, is such an example), you sometimes can't avoid political or human-caused ones (wars, dictatorships, the taxman :P etc.)

So the "be prepared" advice elsewhere in the thread sounds good. If I ever move to California I'll try to find an earthquake-safe place.

No, not if you view it from the perspective of statistics. The chances of you dying in a traffic accident are still much higher. In fact, it seems like you're 20,000 times more likely to die from this than in an earthquake living in California [1]. And you can always increase your chances of survival by living on bedrock, or not directly on a fault line, or living in a newer building (skyscrapers are actually safer than a 1-story house due to higher requirements in safety).

[1] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ears5/handouts/Prob_dying6_25_99.h...

Thanks all for offering your perspective. This comforts me a lot. I guess I would start by stocking up supplies and checking whether the apartment I live is properly retrofitted.

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