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I live in Southern California and I believe that we are more prepared for an earthquake than any place on Earth. We have proof -- the Northridge quake. 57 deaths is an amazingly low number for an earthquake of that size. I am 3 miles from the epicenter and had power and gas back within 1 day!

Well, you have to keep some things in mind:

1) It wasn't THAT big of an earthquake; energy release, and general destructive power, goes up 32 times for each whole number of magnitude (it's simple ground motion that goes up 10 times), so a magnitude 7-7.2 earthquake in the LA Basin, which is quite possible, is a whole new ballgame compared to a M 6.7 earthquake.

2) In both the Northridge and the San Fernando earthquake of 1971 a great deal of the energy of the quake was directed into largely unpopulated areas of the hills.

3) Northridge occured at the perfect time of day to minimize deaths.

Right after Northridge a lot of Japanese were shaking their heads at those stupid unprepared Americans and how much destruction they suffered and acting smugly confident and proud about their own readiness.

Of course, precisely one year later they had 6,000 people killed in Kobe.

I saw a lot of fairly uninformed similar smugness over the Bam Iran and San Simeon earthquakes, which were of similar magnitude and fairly close to each other timewise, but of course had vastly different levels of destruction and death tolls; however one was DIRECTLY under a fairly good-sized city, and the other was basically in the middle of nowhere.

We're going to have an earthquake that kills thousands in this country, and likely within the next 20 years.

We're going to have an earthquake that kills thousands in this country, and likely within the next 20 years.

Don't get me wrong -- no one can stop the devestation that will happen. It is just we are more prepared than anyone else.

In building design, there are 2 ways to deal with earthquakes: flex or overbuild. The California approach of flex seems to be superior (witness Kobe).

But I am not smug, and thank God, neither are the people in charge of California earthquake preparedness. It still amazes me that every single overpass in California has been strengthened (I saw one in progress -- it is rhebar strung in a spring configuration and then concrete).

If we are smug, it is because we keep working at it -- it is our LACK of smugness that is what makes us prepared. An 8.0 at 2:30 pm in SoCal will kill thousands. An 8.0 in New York, Chicago, Memphis, Pittsburgh, etc. will kill millions.

And what about the week(s) after? How many people in Memphis have an earthquake kit with water, food, radio, etc?

I spend a lot of time on the road and I look at new brick buildings (for example) and say to myself, "won't last 10 seconds in a 5.0."