What is a Californian to do, considering these sobering numbers? One might think that they’d be leaving such a potentially dangerous area in droves, but the opposite is the case. California’s population is currently more than 38 million, up from just under 36 million in 2004 and about 34 million in 2000. Additionally, the state’s large population is concentrated in large metropolitan areas, several of which are seated firmly on known fault lines.
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, many California residents merely shrug, as though the high chances of a major quake were instead the numbers for whether or not it would rain the next day.
California resident Raymond Short said, “I would say most Californians, at least the ones I know, are pretty casual when it comes to earthquakes.”
That makes sense, at least to a certain extent. Building and safety codes are constantly being revised and improved upon as new data is collected from seismic activity. While there have been some serious earthquakes recently, relatively few people in recent memory have died from a quake, and even those few deaths were almost twenty years ago. Most of the earthquakes Californians have experienced recently were relatively benign — some torn-up roads here, a damaged building there, but nothing truly destructive.
“I live pretty much right over a fault line and I’m so used to the average earthquake that I’m excited when we get one,” Mr. Short continued. “Once in a while we will bring up that we’re overdue for a big quake, but we definitely don’t stress about that. Sometimes I hear about a moderate earthquake from the news or a friend and I didn’t even notice.”
Despite the levity with which Short discussed earthquakes, he still takes precautions in the event that something truly dangerous does occur. Everything in his house is bolted down, for starters. In the event of an earthquake, this helps in two ways: first, the chances of something breaking are greatly reduced. Second, the chances of a heavy piece of furniture falling and injuring someone are also significantly smaller. Additionally, Short said that his house had been designed to not only meet earthquake safety codes, but to exceed them by a significant margin.
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