would like to move to CA but i'm afraid of earthquakes. unfounded fear?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

sick of the freezing winters and humid summers of the northeast.
ideal temperature is 70-80, low humidity, bright sun.

it seems as if CA offers what i desire, but they've got issues with the ground staying still. i have a feeling the big one is going to strike in the near future.

is there another option in the US?

 

[iliopsoas]

Not the earthquakes you should worry about. Try massive government spending and crazy taxes.

 

[DesiPower]

IMO earthquake is the least of your worries...

 

[DingDingDao]

Doesn't matter where you move, there's gonna be some natural disaster to worry about. I've lived in CA off and on for about 16 years now and TBH you learn to live with the shakes. The best way to deal with it is realize that CA is much better prepared (both EMS and the engineering in the buildings) than most places.

Where do you live now?

Maybe consider AZ?

 

[CRXican]

that should be the least of your worries

May I recommend Texas?

 

[sygyzy]

Being a native Californian it's amazing to me how afraid people are of earthquakes. The best is when you witness someone who isn't from around here as a small scale quake hits. It's sheer terror. While it's funny it's also confusing to me. I've been through Whittier, Northridge and other quakes and I'm find. I could sleep through most quakes. I wonder how I would feel about moving to Kansas or somewhere with tornados. Or Florida with hurricanes. I imagine that's 10x worse but maybe the locals there would laugh at me too.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

In more than three decades of living in California, I have felt exactly two earthquakes. And both times, what I felt was less severe on the building than a 25MPH wind gust.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I've lived here for 20 years, experienced a few shakers during that time but nothing that has ever come close to injuring me or even causing more than just minor damage (like knocking over a candle stick). Storms and bad weather kill far more people annually than earthquakes do in California.

 

[zinfamous]

that should be the least of your worries

May I recommend Texas?

Texas has more crazies.

but as for CA, the utter lack of jobs and perpetual broken nature of the state government merits more concern than earthquakes.

 

[zinfamous]

Being a native Californian it's amazing to me how afraid people are of earthquakes. The best is when you witness someone who isn't from around here as a small scale quake hits. It's sheer terror. While it's funny it's also confusing to me. I've been through Whittier, Northridge and other quakes and I'm find. I could sleep through most quakes. I wonder how I would feel about moving to Kansas or somewhere with tornados. Or Florida with hurricanes. I imagine that's 10x worse but maybe the locals there would laugh at me too.

Growing up with Hurricanes, they are easily less frightening. You have up to 2 weeks warning before a big one hits. Only very few of them will wreak utter havok on an entire city.

Probably even fewer earthquakes will be as destructive...but you have zero warning. Fucking zero warning. and the ground moves. ....what the fuck?
No way man...no fucking way.
(been in CA ~1.5 years now...still not sure what it's like)

 

[FoBoT]

http://www.harborinsurance.com/guides/disasterprofile.htm

if you want warm and lower natural disaster risk, try :

new mexico or western texas

 

[shopbruin]

An everyday earthquake is nothing. It won't knock you over to the ground. When you get into the 5 range, then it becomes a nice little shake. Getting up into the 6's and higher and things might start falling off the shelves.

Buildings (newer ones for sure) are built to a much stricter code. It won't crumble like you see in China or Haiti. If the building crumbled, there's much more to worry about! It was probably a massive one!

The stupidity of the state government is one thing to worry about, people always bitching about others encroaching on their way of life but not yielding towards helping others improve their way of life is another, and your job security may indeed suck depending on what you do.

The biggest quake I lived through was the Loma Prieta, which was a 6.9. Where I lived at the time, nothing fell over in our house. I don't think even a picture frame was knocked over. I just stood there as everything shook. I was also 8 at the time, so I had completely forgotten all the "duck cover and roll" training they drill us in school.

I mean you could try avoiding areas where a fault line runs right through it, but the next thing you know, a quake will strike and they will go "omg undiscovered fault!" Just learn to live with it, and be prepared.

 

[Locut0s]

Move to Vancouver.

People rarely talk about feeling earthquakes here, I've never felt one in the 20+ years I've lived here. Course we are slated for a 9.0+ mega-quake in the coming 100 years or so.

 

[FoBoT]

Move to Vancouver.

People rarely talk about feeling earthquakes here, I've never felt one in the 20+ years I've lived here. Course we are slated for a 9.0+ mega-quake in the coming 100 years or so.

and you could get volcano'ed to death
and if you are too close to the coast, tsunami'ed

 

[sygyzy]

Growing up with Hurricanes, they are easily less frightening. You have up to 2 weeks warning before a big one hits. Only very few of them will wreak utter havok on an entire city.

Probably even fewer earthquakes will be as destructive...but you have zero warning. Fucking zero warning. and the ground moves. ....what the fuck?
No way man...no fucking way.
(been in CA ~1.5 years now...still not sure what it's like)

I hope you get to experience a big quake soon. They're kind of fun!

 

[Sheep]

As a midwesterner who lived in the SF Bay Area for 10 years who's now back in the midwest, I'm more afraid of pipes freezing and bursting (which actually happened on the roof of my top floor apartment, leading to a lovely hole dripping water in my kitchen ceiling) than I am of earthquakes.

2.something - Feels like a truck driving by on the street--barely noticeable unless you're sitting absolutely still and in silence.

3.something - Feels like a big truck driving by on the street--more noticeable but nothing to worry about.

4.something - Stuff around your house will actually shake and move noticeably--the one I experienced around this magnitude was definitely weird, but still didn't bother me beyond one day wondering if there would be aftershocks.

As others have correctly noted, earthquakes will be the least of your worries if you move to California.

 

[zinfamous]

I hope you get to experience a big quake soon. They're kind of fun!

...so, should I bolt shit to the wall or what? my plasma is currently free-standing. is that retarded in terms of earthquake safety?

will my stuff get wrecked?

 

[Locut0s]

and you could get volcano'ed to death
and if you are too close to the coast, tsunami'ed

Actually there's no active or dormant volcanoes near by enough to do any damage. You could be right about the tsunami, however Vancouver may actually be protected by Vancouver Island. Vancouver sits at a bend in a straight (the Georgia Strait) and we are largely protected by Vancouver Island from the open ocean. The fault that will rupture is off the coast of Vancouver Island on the ocean facing side. Course depending on the geometry of it all we still might be fucked by a tsunami.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Doesn't matter where you move, there's gonna be some natural disaster to worry about. I've lived in CA off and on for about 16 years now and TBH you learn to live with the shakes. The best way to deal with it is realize that CA is much better prepared (both EMS and the engineering in the buildings) than most places.

Where do you live now?

Maybe consider AZ?

northeast does not have natural disasters, just extreme weather.

 

[scott916]

I've lived here for 25 years and I've never even felt an earthquake.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

that should be the least of your worries

May I recommend Texas?

heat and humidity??

 

[Locut0s]

I hope you get to experience a big quake soon. They're kind of fun!

If no one you love gets hurt and nothing major you care about gets destroyed. But you are unlikely to be that lucky if we are talking about a big quake so fuck that quakes are scary. Yeah I too sometimes think it would be fun to experience one, then I think of the loved ones I could loose.

 

[lupi]

IMO earthquake is the least of your worries...

This..........

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Move to Vancouver.

People rarely talk about feeling earthquakes here, I've never felt one in the 20+ years I've lived here. Course we are slated for a 9.0+ mega-quake in the coming 100 years or so.

ya know, i have actually considered vancouver.
how's the winters up there? avg temps and snowfall.

 

[Gothgar]

earthquakes are fun