Years ago the National Park Service was in the process of purchasing a portion of Santa Cruz Island and I was on the island, spending the night in one of the historic buildings that graces the island. The last thought that went through my drowsy brain was "I hope there is no earthquake - there must be at least forty feet of unreinforced masonry above me. I wonder if that will affect the sale"

Bringing the subject up later at a meeting, I learned that indeed it did, and great was the wailing and gnashing of teeth thereof. A similar building has been reinforced and retrofitted at significant expense and now serves as an island visitor center, but this building, at Smuggler's Cove, is still off limits to Park personnel for sleeping overnight.

On a more positive note, I and many others have watched the construction of a significant addition to our local hospital. The first step was significant excavation of an immense hole and the pouring of a very large concrete plug - I believe to serve as a sub-foundation. The most prominent feature of the multi=story framing now rising is beefy steel X-bracing. We've learned a lot in the last century.

Retrofitting is expensive, a real hassle, and it won't necessarily ensure the survival of the building, but the occupants are more likely to live. In that sense, the Napa quake retrofit was successful.