Originally Posted By: ireckon
Also, in California, there were some pretty bad fires a couple years ago. The government seemed to be well prepared, but what if the government wasn't? Then, many people would have been stranded and desperate, which would have lead to unrest or worse...


California has pretty bad fires on a regular basis, and has learned to deal with them fairly effectively. There have been a few exceptions, but they are rare.

I think a key factor, not surprisingly, is the relative affluence of the populations. In California, everyone has a car. You simply drive away from the flames, bypassing the Red Cross and large animal shelters on the way to the motel/resort/friend's home of your choice. Shelters are typically underutilized. Even a very bad fire which guts a few hundred homes affects only a very small fraction of the population, hence there is no large scale disruption.

The Big One, properly situated, may well be a different story. A large earthquake, epicentered within a large urban population, might well result in something like Katrina. A close analogy of what might come would be the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Apparently the death toll there was likely much higher than the heavily spun "official" count.
_________________________
Geezer in Chief