With what happened in Japan, and living in California in a coastal town, its always been a nagging fear that we have earthquakes here and a possible tsunami that could happen.
I have yet to be in one, and living in NC, we had to contend with hurricanes, and tornados. I can hang with those for sure, but an earthquake??
My husband showed me this site where this guy is predicting a major quake and tsunami in the next 7 days. Even had something on The Today Show about the possibility that we are next. Due to the moon being so close to the earth, and dead fish washing up on the shore, beached wales, etc, this guy feels like its going to happen for sure. People are even buying up water and supplies to be be on the safe side.
I know that they can't accuratly predict earthquakes and all, but you can look at the signs and prepare.
When the tsunami waves were supposed to hit us, the beaches were evacuated but the mall where I work didn't evcuate us at all. We had to stay open.
I wasn't concerned with that threat as much since we were only supposed to get a 3 foot wave at the most, but what if I am at work when something like that happens?
We have a emergency plan in place, but if I hear sirens go off, I am locking the store up and getting out. Forget about the store. I won't put my life in danger..
I am really stressing about this..its hard to sleep right now.
Last edited by CrystalZ10; 03-19-2011 at 03:44 AM.
If you don't mind me asking, where about in coastal CA are you?
Its true, they can't predict the quakes, but with the issues in the pacific rim recently, it wouldn't be a huge shock if we got one.
I didnt used to live with earthquakes, I moved to california a few years ago from the east coast. Hit me with a blizzard and i'm FINE, shake up the house and I'm a panicked MESS.
I was in southern california for the Baja quake on Easter of last year and it scared the **** out of me... but I learned a lot. Now i'm living in the bay area and i'm MUCH closer to the fault lines than I was in San Diego.
One thing to remember is that they are not kidding when they say that California is earthquake proofed. Everything has to live up to earthquake building code standards. It would take a truly ENORMOUS quake to knock over things here.
The other thing to remember is to just be prepared! You can't tell when an earthquake is going to happen, unlike other weather that we learned to be used to back east. Back east, we knew "OK, a storm is coming, lets get extra water, blankets, candles, chargers for things when the power goes out..." Its the same thing here, you just make sure these things are ALWAYS around instead of stocking up just before the storm back home.
Keep extra trash bags, water, a first aid kit, flash lights, batteries, candles and lighters, water purification tablets, pet food, non perishable food for you, portable, battery powered cell phone chargers, etc... and try not to leave the car tank on empty *just in case* you would need to leave an area quickly.
I grew up in california, something you are not realizing is there are earthquakes EVERYDAY. yeah for real. most of them are tiny little shifts that you don't notice, but they are happening.
like Gonnaturnheads said, all the buildings are very earthquake proof. Things are gonna fall off of shelves and whatnot but the building is not going to come down around you unless it is a seriously large large large quake.
tsunamis are not really a worry as much for the pacific coast as for aisa, this is because the fault lines over near japan etc are under water, in california you have the san andreas fault line which is under land or directly offshore, in the areas it is under land it cannot create a tsunami because the water isnt there to react to the quake, where the fault lies directly offshore there really isnt enough distance between the fault line and the shore to create a large enough wave to do much, if any, damage.
just keep supplies as a safety measure and if you do feel and earthquake stand in a framed doorway or get under a sturdy desk and stay away from glass windows/doors etc and stay away from shelves where anything heavy or breakable may be falling off and wait out the ride.
I'm with you. I've lived in southern california most of my life and have an unatural fear of earthquakes. I also heard about thie "prediction" and have been having panic attacks since. I tend to be a worst case senario kind of person. SO I'm just trying my absolute best to stay calm and breathe. I mean what will happen will happen and we're all going to be ok. Being an architect gives me some peace as I know all the standards involved in building.
I also heard, while I don't know if this is true, but I'm choosing to believe it because it makes me feel better, but I heard that we can't have as large of a quake here because our faults aren't as long or as deep. But the problems is that our quakes happen closer to the surface so smaller quakes feel larger.
I don't know, like I said, it's part of living in so cal and I just can not, can not let it it consume me or make me run around in fear.
I'm on the west coast as well in Canada. And we had a major tsunami on the island in the early 60's. I know in the town I lived in the news did a story mapping out which areas of town would be hit with a tsunami and it made me feel a lot better. It was really a very small amount of the city. It might help you to see a map like that. And if you ever have a major earthquake you will know where to head for safety.
There are also extensive lists out there that give you something to do for a major earthquake so that you will be completely prepared after a couple months. That way it isn't too expensive and you will feel more prepared.
Your local government may have a department of Emergency Preparedness or Emergency Management and probably a webpage with guidelines for residents. If it doesn't answer all your concerns (elevations to avoid tsunamis), call them.
Having a plan and practicing it goes a long way to easing some of your worries.
There is no way to predict an earthquake. I saw a bona fide scientist on CNN saying he read about these alarmists. He said no correlation has been found between the cycles of the moon and earthquakes. There is a correlation between earthquakes and more earthquakes on the same fault lines. But with absolutely no predictable time or location sequence.
I live in California and have experienced a 7.1 earthquake and as you can see I am still here to tell you about it. I also was vacationing in Hawaii one time and was evacuated from my hotel due to a tsunami warning, it didn't actually hit the island where I was but precautions were taken by the authorities. There are no guarentees. Some parts of the country have devastating flooda or tornadoes, snowstorms or blizzards. Be prepared as much as you can and know what to do if any emergency should hit.
There is another fault line in the water near San Fran Sisco, and it that was to go off, than the possibility of a tsunami could happen.
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And that is where I live and we do have earthquakes . Would you rather have hurricanes as they do on the East Coast or some of the devastaing floods that occur in other parts of the country? If you worry about these things you will drive yourself crazy. California is much better prepared for earthquakes than Japan. or Haiti or Mexico. By the way, the famous earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906 caused a lot of damage but no tsunami.
And that is where I live and we do have earthquakes . Would you rather have hurricanes as they do on the East Coast
Heck yeah!! I've ridden out 4 hurricanes in the past. I can hang with the hurricane. I'm sure once I get past my first quake or two, I'll be fine, but its really put the idea of being prepared in perspective for me. It can and will happen at some point and being prepared is the key.
California is much better prepared for earthquakes than Japan. or Haiti or Mexico. By the way, the famous earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906 caused a lot of damage but no tsunami.
Japan is/was one of the best prepared countries in the world due to the fact that they have constant quakes. That said, the 89 quake didn't do as much damage as it could have because of all the building codes and requirements that Calif. requires. The 7.1 1989 quake should have had more fatalities. I'm convinced that the world series saved lives. People had taken off work early to be someplace to see our 2 bay area teams.
If your cabinet doors have knobs, try tying (or tight bungie cord) them together so they can't fly open. Are your bookshelves bolted to the wall? You can do that with a hutch as well.
Remember, water can go stale. If it is a few years old, then perhaps you can water some plants with it and replace it with fresh water. We keep some gallons of water in our freezer. When we go camping, we put one in each cooler. It works as an ice block and as it melts, we have water for drinking and cooking if we need it. While I don't care for canned food, we do have beans and some tomatoes. We have some frozen food and a butane burner for cooking if we need it. That's in addition to the camp stove.
I understand your fear. I grew up in Fla and can remember evacuating for hurricanes. At least we could see those coming.
I can empathize with a fear of disaster; I'm in New Orleans and...well, we know what happened here about five and a half years ago. In a way, hurricanes are easier to deal with because they're something you can plan for and get away from. On the other hand, hurricanes last for hours, not seconds and combine the worst of other natural disasters (tsunami-like storm surge, tornadoes spawned in feeder bands).
So there's no such thing as a "good" natural disaster, really.
Put your mind at ease by doing what you can to be prepared for a disaster. Look at where you live and plan where you're going to be in the event of a quake: if you live in the suburbs, chances are you can just run outside and be safe from the quake itself. Put together a disaster preparedness kit. Know where you're going to go in the event of a tsunami warning.
No one can predict earthquakes. Don't listen to fear-mongers who claim that they can. If anyone could do it, they would surely have done it in Haiti and Japan and far fewer people would have lost their lives. These people are just trying to get on the nightly news; they're crackpots.
If it happens--and it might, because nowhere is completely disaster-proof--you will have taken all possible steps to be safe. Your stuff is just stuff; if some of it gets destroyed, even if ALL of it gets destroyed, you'll be able to carry on. Plenty of people I know personally have done it. I've done it, and I'm a big baby who cries at Hallmark card commercials.
The biggest issue with the tsunami in Japan was that there was very little warning. Because the subduction and the displacement of water occurred close to the shoreline, there was not a lot of time to evacuate to higher ground (minutes, not hours). The plates and faultlines on the central CA coastlines (though capable of generating significant earthquake events) are different than those in Japan. So in terms of tsunami risk, while you do have some because you are on a coast and the waves can travel great distances, you'd likely have a lot of warning to evacuate to higher ground. Other areas of the west coast, like the LA area and the northern coast from around Portland north, do have higher risk of low-warning tsunamis, because they are in subduction zones, but in central CA, your biggest tsunami risk is from earthquakes occurring far away...meaning you have hours to evacuate, not minutes.
Disasters happen everywhere, sometimes with warning, sometimes without. I was 7 when Loma Prieta hit, and my dad was very nearly injured. All you can do is know the disasters that are most likely in your area, and prepare for them. That means having emergency supplies on hand, not rushing out to get them when a situation strikes. It means having a solid emergency plan in place, so you know where to go and what to do, again, prepared BEFORE such a situation ever arises. And then it means relaxing a bit, knowing that you're prepared as best you can be, so that if such an emergency strikes your reaction will be the execution of your prepared plan, not panic.
I agree with Mandalinn82, Japan was the most earthquake prepared country, it was the tsunami caught them off guard. California isn't as nearly prepared. When it comes to predictions, I just heard not too long ago that the most they can predict is 15 seconds before it happens...not enough to give you time to think. LOL
I lived in SoCal (OC), I was there for the Northridge and Whittier quakes. I also had a very unhealthy fear of quakes. We moved to TX 4 yrs ago, so now we deal with Tornadoes which aren't as bad since most of the time you know they're coming. But still they can be hard to predict. We don't have a storm shelter, everyone and their brother tells us we're nuts if we buy one cause the likelyhood of one coming to our town is very low. I ain't listening. LOL
Make sure you're prepared with everything you need.
There is no advance warning with an earthquake as has already been said it is best to be prepared , to know what to do. We did have warning about the tsunami as it raced torward us from Japan, we had several hours notice that it was coming but there was little that could be done, I live close to Santa Cruz and they suffered millions of dollars damage, boats sunk or damaged and docks torn away, but no lives lost in this part of California. There was a death reported from farther up the coast and sadly it was actually the fault of the person who was lost. He was taking pictures of the tsunami, I feel sorry for his family ,but that was a stupid thing to do.
So worried about a possible earthquake..
I'm sure once I get past my first quake or two, I'll be fine, but its really put the idea of being prepared in perspective for me. It can and will happen at some point and being prepared is the key.
