AKSAR

re faults like San Andreas. I thought there was a study done on an undersea fault that ruptured in a way similar to the San Adreas. and generated a quake larger than expected. I'm not claiming that the San Andreas will give a Mag 9. My comment actually said 8-9. So that could include an 8.2

MATH: There are about 10 million people in LA County, and 3 million in Orange County. Let's suppose 50% have serious water problems. so that's about 50% x 13 million = 6.5 million. If each person needs 4 pints of water per day (which is a LOW number!), the requirement is 25 million pints of water PER DAY. Stop and think about how you could possibly get 25 million pints of water per day into a major metropolitan area, esp. with the major freeways down. Helicopters cannot come close to this problem. Even if there are large convoys of Army trucks transporting water on normal roads, it's probably nowhere near 25 million pints per day, and it only reaches some distribution points. THIS is a big problem. I don't see how the math comes close to working out i.e. supply versus demand. I agree that people will drink from ponds, but those will be gone quickly. the quake could damage some reservoirs.

Bottom line - I am not optimistic about how people will behave, once their families are seriously thirsty. It's a real concern, I think!

Pete