"a saving grace may be that SoCal is rather near the coast. "

I have thought a lot about that too. To be honest, California is NOT doing a lot of things - they should be doing!

Right now CA is in a major water crisis. We know this is not going away any time soon. This should be a time when they take major emergency action to build as many desalination plants as possible. I know they've got studies, and one plant is coming on line soon. BUT honestly. they needs these facilities all the way up the coast. Especially around the big cities. It's a real lifesaver.

I also thought about the US Navy. TRUTH is - they could make a tremendous difference. In terms of security, water supplies, and hospital beds. I don't know what the capabilities of a large aircraft carrier are - in terms of water purification. I've got no idea. But they must be pretty good - just to sustain the operations.

Like I said - if we are "lucky" we will get a local city earthquake that really shakes things up. I am 100% positive that the system can handle a local quake - like the Newport-Inglewood fault line. Or maybe the Palos Verdes fault line - it's the sneaky ones that creep up on you. That fault is active, but has not triggered for a very long time. There could be hundreds of casualties, and the economic damage will be really huge. But it will have the big "payoff" of really giving the LA and California governments a wake up call. That could save a lot of lives over the long term.

I am confident that people will pull together during the first 72 hours after a quake. I am pretty confident that a lot of people will keep trying to be positive for a lot longer. But I don't know what will happen during the time period 3-14 days after the Big One hits L.A. I guess we will find out.

I am a scientist. I live in LA. I went back and personally double-checked all the data for the southern San Andreas fault line. According to my quick calculation, there is a 98% chance that the Big One should have hit already. So right now, we running on a 2% chance that we are still in the clear. Nobody knows how long that 2% is "good for". But seriously, we are "running on fumes". In terms of geological time, this could still be 10 years 0r 30 years. But it could just as easily be next month or the end of the year.

Pete