Fault East of Bay Area 'Locked and Loaded'

[FormerRepublican]

"HAYWARD, Calif. - New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck's ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room, creeping toward the fireplace, veering down the wall. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits.

"It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting," DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 2 1/2 inches from its latch, the strange bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.

DeMuynck could throw her paint brush from her front stoop and hit the Hayward Fault, which geologists consider the most dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area, if not the nation. Like others who live here, she gets by on a blend of denial, hope and humor.

It's the geologists, emergency planners and historians who seem to do most of the worrying, even in this year of heightened earthquake awareness for the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's Great Quake of April 18, 1906."

Yahoo link

With Bush and his cronies in charge of FEMA, could a catastrophic earthquake in California be anything except a total and complete disaster? After Katrina, I look at risks like these and just shudder.

I grew up in California, and to me an earthquake isn't a big deal unless it's a big one. And I'm used to the threat of earthquakes. But the idea of Bush in charge of a major earthquake recovery, well... :scared:

Edit to fix link.

[riderinthestorm]

1. Isn't/wasn't this fault named as one of the "Big 3" certain US disasters?

If I can recall it was an earthquake in SF, hurricane in NO and a nuke in NY.

I'm thinking this fault is the one they are referring to....

[Gormy Cuss]

3. yes, this is the one with the highest probability of a major disaster

among the SF area faults. It runs from the edge of the Silicon Valley up through the heart of Oakland and Berkeley.

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Sixty of the most populous...

industrialized, infrastructure-dependent, economically valuable miles in the United States. You know what I mean, Vern?

[hobbit709]

2. Having been in both

I won't live where the ground moves or the mountains smoke.

[MADem]

4. I cannot get the link to work

I've been in earthquakes in the mideast, Japan, and California...and the greatest of all was California (Loma Prieta)!

[FormerRepublican]

5. Sorry. I fixed the link. It should work now.

[MADem]

9. Thanks! It has to be a worry, living in that area

I guess all you can do is prepare and try not to think about it too much.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. The Hayward Fault is my neighbor

I live just down Montague Expwy from the Hayward - in the flood plain and liquefaction zones of Coyote Creek and the Guadalupe River.

Here's the San Francisco OES web site -- and check out your local Citizens Corps "CERT" web site--

and

and your local Red Cross Chapter web site

and
Santa Clara Valley Red Cross

and don't forget Ham Radio Communications

and

The Life You Save May Be Mine!

[proud patriot]

7. mine too

I live near a different east bay faultline

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. We've already lost the WTC

New Orleans and Iraq during W's reign of terra. He can't wait for the next disaster. Who can he wipe out next?

[CatholicEdHead]

11. Given all the anti-SF propaganda, many people will cheer this

and discourage aid coming in after the "big one". :(

[Coastie for Truth]

12. How True

My wife, the kids, and I are active in several Bay Area "NGO Responder" Groups (Two Red Cross Chapters, three Citizen Corps Groups, two RACES groups).

At our meetings and training sessions we jokingly accept the fact that it's in our hands and a Bush-GOP FEMA won't do crap for us. And, because its a very ethnically heterogeneous, very liberal, and reputed to be high income area -- we will not see the volunteers from outside the area.

[Tesha]

13. We're on the verge of predicting earthquakes a day or two in advance!

This article

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec05/2367

in IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers describes work that's
going on that appears to be able to predict earthquakes
a day or two in advance. The sensors being used vary,
but they all appear to detect electromagnetic phenomena
associated with massive fracturing of the underlying rocks.

Interestingly, some of the effects are the same ones that
have been rumoured for years including lightning/
thunder and strange lights in the sky.

A large network of sensors is now being constructed
in California; some of the sensor systems are also
satellite-borne. So it may actually be possible to
give some warning by the time the Hayward Fault
ruptures!

Tesha

[riderinthestorm]

14. Traffic nightmare!

Look at the evacuation disasters down south for an example of what would be ahead of us with a day's notice....