Earthquake in Southern California

OK, well, I'll trust your opinion ... from south Florida.

 

Did you finally leave that armpit San Berdoo?

 

The smog used to be far, far worse back in the 60s and 70s, when we had Kaiser Steel in Fontucky (hi, Mile!) and before the SoCal Air Quality Management District was up and running.

And it never ceases to amaze and amuse me at the way people freak out about earthquakes more than any other disaster. We get one of consequence every 10-15 years and others that are no worse than a cat jumping on your bed.

Yes, the Whittier Narrows quake in '87 nearly threw me out of bed. The Yucca Valley one in '92 DID throw me out of bed and the Northridge quake in '94 seemed like it went on forever.

I'll take those over the yearly get-the-hell-out-of-Dodge hurricanes any day. Like Buck said, you keep embracing those yearly hurricanes and tornadoes. And the mudslides aren't a factor unless you live on a hill.

 

Where did you move to?

 

Another California resident chiming in that I will also take earthquakes over Hurricanes any day.

I lived 6 miles from the epicenter of the Northridge quake. Yeah, the place shook and my apartment was deemed unsafe and I had to move. It freaked me out. It was a major major major earthquake ... And only like 75 people died.

Meanwhile, once a year there are hurricanes that kill hundreds of people and destroy thousands of homes. People know they are coming, and they still get killed!

As for the smog, it's not so bad. Not like it used to be. Of course, I never lived in the parts of SoCal that have the most smog.

 

Hurricane ... no one has any excuse to die.

Earthquake ... many excuses.

I say that while agreeing that given the frequency, I would take the earthquakes.

But, as a non-smoker, the smog is a dealbreaker for me.

Beautiful, clean, circulating ocean air down here.

 

I'd rather split my time between Maine in the summer and the Florida Keys in the winter. But California would do, too. I don't know much about the smog. But I prefer crisp, clean air mixed with the smell of pines.

About hurricanes, though...

People who aren't familiar with them often misunderstand. There's plenty of warning. If you feel threatened, you can leave. That's not the case with an earthquake. You don't get to watch it slowly approach over a week's worth of weather reports. It just happens. Most of the time, it's not that bad. But I can understand why someone would fear an earthquake more than a hurricane.

I think tornadoes are the worst. There's very little warning, and any tornado that hits you has the potential to kill.

 

Beautiful blue skies today where I am, Simon. Not as blue as New Mexico (the bluest I've ever seen), but not a hint of brown down here. Just sayin'. SoCal is a big area.

 

From the no-shit-Sherlock dept.:

 

What would, really, happen in the Big One?