I’ve lived in a few homes in L.A. built with wood frames. One of them still stands it is 140+ years old. The other was built in the 1930s, recently demolished by the new owner to build a steel and cement monstrosity that covers nearly the entire lot. The third newer was newer, 1970s construction.
In any case, all of them survived all the earthquakes. The 1930’s craftsman shook like the dickens during the 1994 earthquake. Freeway overpasses miles farther from the epicenter collapsed in that quake. Nothing broke in the craftsman except a ceramic plate that rattled off a table. Dishes in the wood cabinet stayed put. Windows rattled but never broke. Not even a guitar propped against the wall so much as fell over.
We were at Disneyland when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit during the World Series. Based on the news reporting from Candlestick and the Marina District in San Francisco, I figured the entire Bay Area was flattened. I told her that we should develop plans to stay somewhere else for a year while we were rebuilding.
So my wife picked up the phone and said she was going to call the neighbors to see what was going on. I said “Don’t bother, all the communications lines will be down.” She got our neighbor in a moment who had already been over to check out our house. Nothing happened to our single-story wood-frame rancher built on short concrete foundation walls (no “cripple walls”). Wood frame houses and nailed connections are so flexible that not much happens to them in earthquakes (especially if you don’t have cripple walls or a heavy tile roof).
Later on we found out that our chimney had cracked at the shoulders and we had to rebuild that.