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I lived and worked in San Francisco for several years in the Seventies and, like most residents, I shrugged off the dire warnings from friends and family members outside the area as to my imminent demise in an earthquake.

As it happened, my daily grind was never interrupted even once by the smallest of tremors, setting the stage for me to continue the normalcy bias in regards to preparing for one -- even after moving to the Olympia area and being subjected to a new set of doom-and-gloom predictions about The Big One overdue in the Cascadian Subduction Zone off our coastline.

Then I stumbled upon Home Facts, a realtor tool for assessing hazards before purchasing any kind of real estate. Just for grins, I typed in my little town to see what new worries I should obsess about in my ongoing efforts to prepare. Let’s see – there’s an A for the Crime Index, an 8.5 out of 10 for Air Quality, a Low rating for Radon Levels, another A on Tornado Risk, and – OMG! – a D-minus for Earthquake Risk!

Frowning, I clicked on the details:

“The USGS database shows that there is an 86.349% chance of a major earthquake within 50 kilometers of this location within the next 50 years.”

And that missing sense of urgency suddenly blossomed in my mind at last. Fifty years in geologic time is a mere nanosecond, and 86% is too close to 100% for comfort. I NEEDED TO PREP FOR AN EARTHQUAKE AS IF IT WERE A SHTF EVENT!

All I remembered from my school days was the old duck-and-cover routine until the ground stopped shaking. However, now I had all my preps to worry about, and they could hardly do the same thing, lol.

So what could I do to maximize both my physical safety and the survival of all my supplies? I started listing some ideas after a whole-house walk-through:

Strap heavy furniture, TVs, appliances, and the hot water heater to the walls.
Add latches to all cabinets.
Secure lighting fixtures and wall hangings.
Use putty adhesive under knick-knacks and other breakables and collectibles.
Add shelf “lips” to keep glass jars and cans in place
Keep BOV gassed up and full of supplies separate from the house

What have you done, or what can you add to this list? If you live in western Washington, the time is NOW to prepare for a big earthquake.

Now if I could just get that percentage out of my head when I’m strolling on the beach, staring out to sea and looking for that incoming tsunami…

A BIG thank you to GoldenOldie for submitting this article!


Comment by GoldenOldie:

Color me shocked but it appears the experts have not reached a consensus on that high percentage for a Big Quake that burned a hole in my brain: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/12/despite_an_unusual_run_of_gian.html "The risks of a subduction zone quake differ from north to south. In the northern segment, Goldfinger's group also puts the odds at 10 to 15 percent during the next 50 years. Quakes originating there tend to rupture the full length of the subduction zone, he says. In southern Oregon and Northern California, quakes along the subduction zone appear to strike more frequently."
The odds look a little better now where I'm located, but I'm still going full speed ahead on those quake mitigation ideas -- just like a prudent PNW prepper should do. :)
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