25 Years After The Northridge Earthquake, Is LA Ready For The Big One?

[TomSea]

25 Years After The Northridge Earthquake, Is LA Ready For The Big One?
January 17, 2019
Heard on Morning Edition  Jacob Margolis

Twenty five years ago, at 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook Angelenos from their beds. For those of us who lived through it, the memories of chaos early in the morning are unforgettable.

"We were just literally startled awake by a freight train driving right through our bedroom," said my father, Mark Margolis, who along with my sister, my mother and myself, was sleeping just about seven miles from the epicenter. "I mean the blinds that were supposed to be hanging vertical were like out horizontal. So, there was a tremendous amount of movement."

I was only five, and remember being pulled from my bed into the dark hallway by my parents. Our house was trashed, with everything from our shelves and inside our refrigerator thrown to the ground.

Read more at: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686020821/25-years-after-the-northridge-earthquake-is-la-ready-for-the-big-one

[DB]

No, LA isn't ready.

When the San Andreas does it's big one much of the central coast and southern California are going to be destroyed. The San Andreas also runs right through downtown San Francisco. It too will suffer major damage when it lets loose. The San Andreas is capable of an 8+ earthquake and there haven't been any in California in modern times. An 8 is ten times more powerful than anything California has had to deal with in a populated area since 1906.

[GtHawk]

No, LA isn't ready.

When the San Andreas does it's big one much of the central coast and southern California are going to be destroyed. The San Andreas also runs right through downtown San Francisco. It too will suffer major damage when it lets loose. The San Andreas is capable of an 8+ earthquake and there haven't been any in California in modern times. An 8 is ten times more powerful than anything California has had to deal with in a populated area since 1906.

I'd still rather take my chances with an earthquake than be in a state where God's Thumb (tornado) comes down out of the sky and squishes you. I see that we are back in the earthquake portion of the rotation of natural disasters that will kill us all, what's up next asteroids or maybe super volcanoes?

[truth_seeker]

Irememberr Northridge, and Sylmar before it. Also Whittier Narrows.

Once worked with a man that went thru Long Beach 1933. My mother remembered it from childhood.


A major cause of damage, was "unreinforced masonry structures" Old brick buildings.

I learned a safe place is in a new high rise building.

In Northridge and Loma Prietta, we how dangerous "tuck under" parking style garage-apartment buildings can be.


In Loma Prietta we witnessed how dangerous buildings are, when they sit on "Liquefaction" geology. 

[GtHawk]

Irememberr Northridge, and Sylmar before it. Also Whittier Narrows.

Once worked with a man that went thru Long Beach 1933. My mother remembered it from childhood.


A major cause of damage, was "unreinforced masonry structures" Old brick buildings.

I learned a safe place is in a new high rise building.

In Northridge and Loma Prietta, we how dangerous "tuck under" parking style garage-apartment buildings can be.


In Loma Prietta we witnessed how dangerous buildings are, when they sit on "Liquefaction" geology.

I joke with my friend about his house, he lives within a mile of the beach in Huntington beach, Ca. He built it himself and I helped with some of the construction, I told him that in case of a big earthquake his three story home will become a two story with basement after it sinks down with the liquefaction.