It's been over 100 years since they have had anything comparable to this in the mountains there in Ky and TN. Compare and contrast with earthquakes in California or beach houses wherever.
Earthquake risk in CA is very exaggerated. I grew up in Yolo County, which is in the Central Valley. In the 15+ years of my childhood that I can remember I never felt an earthquake. In the decades after I moved elsewhere my parents did not feel any earthquakes, though they knew of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake from the swaying of some decorations. They lived ~70 miles from the nearest significant fault, and ~150 miles from Loma Prieta. My home in 1989 was about 25 miles from Loma Prieta. We lost electrical power for a couple of days, but I don't think anything fell off our walls or from our cabinets. California construction standards have evolved through the decades since the 1906 earthquake, but the post-WW2 construction I've lived in since moving to Silicon Valley during Carter's MalAdministration has held up well.
As for California falling into the ocean due to the San Andreas Fault, which many conservatives seem to with for, the San Andrea Fault veers into the ocean at SF, follows the coast northward to Point Arena, and then veers out into the ocean. IOW, SF is east of the San Andreas, as is most of California.
I have relatives who live in NE Kansas. They occasionally commented that they could not imagine living in "earthquake country". This amused me, as they spent a good part of every year with an ear on the radio or the Weather Channel, listening for tornado warnings. Every. Year. In the same way, the Gulf Coast has its annual hurricane season, and every few years a hurricane tears its way up the East Coast (e.g. Hurricane Sandy, which clobbered New Jersey). Basic reality is that every area of the world has some sort of natural suck.
