California's Emergency Management agency recently reported that most of the state's citizens aren't prepared for "the big one." And it's certainly not because they don't know better. Uh, right?

Why is it that people wait for the asteroid to enter the atmosphere before they start to freak out?

Read more about it here, plus links to a nytimes story that ran today and the actual survey (for example: 60% of Californians don't have 3 gallons of water, per person, stored at home). Actually, I kind of thought it'd be more like 80 percent, but since it's a well known phenomenon that people lie when they're surveyed, it probably is closer to 80%.

Good post. Although when you think of all the junk people keep around, you think there'd be room for at least a little h2o. Can you post a link to your column/site?

I'm in Washington state and most aren't prepared here either and we could be in for a major quake as well. I think the folks who live in the rural areas are a little better prepared but I'm just basing that on folks I know.

I think if you take a poll of any urban area you will find most people are not prepared for much of anything. Why be prepared, water comes from the tap, electricity from the wall, food from the store down the street. Life is good, don't worry, be happy.

And golly, should something bad happen, the Government will be there to bail them out. That's why that pay taxes doncha know.

Personally, I think it's Darwinism at its' finest, but what do I know?

At least my parents are in that 20-40%, as is my aunt and grandmother. probably.

Izzy, that comment has been made before, and has me wondering, is there any truth to it?

B/c let's face it, the Sierra's are made by pushing land UP, if you look at the coastline (especially Central CA), you'll see cliffs. Not exactly the geography of a sinking area.

Personally, I think that CA is moving OUT of the water, not into it. And I doubt that timeline too - earthquakes have been here for centuries.

To be literal, the relative movement along the San Andreas Fault is lateral (sideways). Relatively speaking, the west (Los Angeles) side is moving north at about 2 cm a year, about the speed with which your nails grow. There are local variations as crustal blocks collide and compress. Locally we are going up at about 4mm a year.

The western part of CA is not the same landmass as the continental US. The two landmasses happen to abut one another right now, rubbing against each other causing earthquakes... I believe the Sierra's are the CONUS landmass being pushed up.

In 200-300 years western CA will be several feet north of where it is now, with several impressive earthquakes in the history books as a result. Append several more zeros to that interval and from memory I think the belief is that the western part of CA moves offshore, looking like Baja CA, eventually splitting off entirely.

All the predictions have probably changed in the 30+ years since I last read a geography textbook, but I am quite certain of one point: by the time CA moves 15+ feet north, the history books will list some major earthquakes throughout CA.

"I'm in Washington state and most aren't prepared here either and we could be in for a major quake as well. I think the folks who live in the rural areas are a little better prepared but I'm just basing that on folks I know."

I live in WA, in a one-signal-light town, and every time there is a high wind warning, the local stores are stripped of the same things: water, beer, canned beef stew, baby formula, diapers, peanut butter, etc. If they didn't get a warning, I guess they'd all be up the creek.

The country people don't seem to plan ahead any better than the city people. People here have animals, large animals, lots of animals, and they don't even have a rainwater-collection pond, cistern, swimming pool, etc, to be able to water their livestock if they lose power to their well pump.

During the last big windstorm, the local feed store put out the word that they had power and well water (bring your own containers), and people were taking her up on it.

I guess when the government does all your thinking, all your planning and all the preparing for you (so they think), you don't have to worry about anything... just pull out the lawn chairs and wait for the Red Cross and National Guard to deliver the fried chicken and beer.

Sue

I think this has a lot to do with the problem of large numbers of people being unprepared. Especially when coupled with areas that don't experience relatively frequent distribution/supply problems. As you go into places where supply problems become more and more visible, on a season basis, such as areas where there are frequent Hurricanes, Floods and Snowstorms you tend to see better preparations in a wider range of the population.

I think that is about the normal percentage of prepared to not prepared.
Even if we say only 20% are prepared that is still 1 person out of 5 who is good to go.
When I look around at different places I have to think it is actually pretty good to get 1/5 of the people prepared.
I would like to see it the other way around with only 20% unequipped for emergency, but I doubt if that will ever happen.