Posted on 03/25/2006 12:14:22 PM PST by blam
Fault East of Bay Area 'Locked and Loaded'
Saturday March 25, 2006 7:31 PM
By SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press Writer
HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) - New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck's ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room, creeping toward the fireplace, veering down the wall. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits.
``It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting,'' DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 2 inches from its latch, the strange bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.
DeMuynck could throw her paint brush from her front stoop and hit the Hayward Fault, which geologists consider the most dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area, if not the nation. Like others who live here, she gets by on a blend of denial, hope and humor.
It's the geologists, emergency planners and historians who seem to do most of the worrying, even in this year of heightened earthquake awareness for the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's Great Quake of April 18, 1906.
Several faults lurk beneath this region, including the San Andreas Fault on the west side of the Bay area, but geologists say the parallel Hayward on the Bay's east side is the most likely to snap next.
``It is locked and loaded and ready to fire at any time,'' said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Tom Brocher.
The Hayward Fault runs through one of the country's most densely populated areas; experts say 2 million people live close enough to be strongly shaken by a big quake.
It slices the earth's crust along a 50-mile swath of suburbia east of San Francisco, from exclusive hilltop manors overlooking the bay to Hayward's humble flatlands...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
We had a 3.7 on the fault earlier in the week. It was shallow though and pretty much most of the east bay felt it.
Wife and I were in the office when it happened and our house did have a good sway but no damage.
Clearly the GOP is at fault here.
Its Bush's backup plan in case global warming doesn't destroy more cities.
They should pass a law banning earthquakes.
Actually the Rodgers Creek Fault (running north from San Pablo Bay through Santa Rosa, etc.) may be even more locked and loaded than the Hayward. It's basically due, based on paleoseismic evidence.
It's actually sort of an extension of the Hayward; there may be some sort of linkage between the two under San Pablo Bay; raising the possibility of both faults going at once, which would be an even more enormous disaster.
And we criticize New Orleans for building in a flood zone.
Any freepers in the area?
Move. Looks like San Franfreako might be getting the Sodom and Gomorrah treatment soon.
I see another disaster (and billions of Federal Funds) coming their way, if/when that fault ever blows.
The difference is, most Califorians are generally more prepared when it comes to earthquakes and emergency kits.
They're waiting for what they KNOW is coming so they can whine about how somebody ought to give them money when it finally does come.
caveat emptor
Is it just me, or are people generally insane? ---
Gee, thanks. My daughter is probably moving to SF within the next year.
Of course, I am moving (out of Florida) into the area of the New Madrid Fault. Geez, guess I need a subscription to Bad Living Magazine.
Remember, when everything is out to get you, paranoid is just positive thinking. ;-)
I have quake insurance and plans to get out of here sometime in the next 4 years.
Yeah, but they obviously don't need our military to bail them out.
The thing is my wife is a native NoCal while I'm from the Midwest.
She is scared to death of tornadoes.
I think just about anywhere one lives there is a chance for doom and gloom.
Somehow, it will be Bush's fault.
Rather long but very good article on what would likely happen after a Hayward quake...
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2005-02-23/news/feature.html
I've noticed a lot of people pretty oblivious to the fire threat. The Fire in the 1906 quake did much more damage than the quake itself.
Even if your house has been retrofitted, etc., for the shaking it's not going to save it from a massive firestorm. There's no conceivable way for any of the Bay Area fire departments to fight the fires, and given the right weather conditions you could get gigantic firestorms simply leveling entire cities.
Come here to Arizona. Not much doom and gloom here, except for the heat.
The chances are hardly equal around the country.
Tornadoes have very narrow damage swaths and the odds of an individual house even in the middle of Oklahoma being destroyed by a tornado in the next 100 years are miniscule.
The single Northridge quake in 1994, which wasn't all that big, did many times more dollar value damage alone than every tornado to ever hit the United States.
There's a reason nobody has to pay extra for special "tornado insurance" even in the Midwest. It's not that much of a loss threat.
Felt it over here too (Daly City). A slight "thump" and then the bookshelves started swaying.
I'd rather have a lotta little ones than one BIG ONE!
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