Readiness, or lack of it, is also on the national mind in this country after back-to-back earthquakes rocked Southern California in late March. Damage was relatively slight. But a question that had loomed for decades suddenly gained new urgency: How prepared are Americans, especially Californians, for the anticipated killer quake routinely referred to with a mixture of dread and awe as the Big One?
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After Loma Prieta and then a quake of 6.7 magnitude in 1994, California bumped up its readiness by many notches. Billions have been spent fortifying infrastructure elements like bridges, rail systems, water mains, schools and other public buildings.
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....being better prepared is hardly synonymous with being fully prepared; ........ Once memories of an earthquake fade, there is a tendency to slip back into complacency.......
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Understandably, California draws the most attention, but fault lines snake through pretty much all regions of the United States except the northern Midwest. (New Yorkers tend to forget that a major fault runs along 125th Street in Manhattan. The Harlem Shake may yet refer to more than a dance craze.) Oregon in particular drew Retro Report’s interest because seismologists believe it is due, maybe even overdue, for an enormous quake that could conceivably register as much as a devastating magnitude 9.