I would venture, the people in the NW are no more worried about earthquakes than the people around here about tornadoes. It is just something you live with. meaning, you know there is a possibility but that's just it.

Exactly. They are closer to being able to predict them, but at this time they can't. I am not going to live my life over "What If's". I have felt some really heavy jolts over my lifetime and my grandparents home was destroyed, years ago. We are not on the coast but the Inter -Mountain region and have felt a few here too. We have prepared as much as we can, with making things quake safe and stocking provisions, but it is what everyone should do in case of any emergency.

I don't know how factual the New Yorker article is, but what I can say, as a Seattleite, is that this area is not prepared for the "big" one. Our infrastructure is lacking, we have too much traffic (3rd worst in the nation), and we don't hear too much about preparing for a catastrophe.

What I can say though - I don't worry about it. Short of moving out of the area, which I'm not going to do, is I'm just trying to prepare as much as possible. Making sure I have extra water available, extra food that doesn't need to be cooked, etc. There isn't a darn thing I can do except take care of myself. I can't stop an earthquake from happening so to drive myself crazy with worry is silly. I don't worry about the things I have no control over. Tell your friend not to worry. There's nothing your friend can do anyway except just make her own emergency preparations.

Best to try to not worry about things you cannot control and in fact accept them.

Plenty of other stuff to worry about about which people can do things to mitigate.

My friend actually lives an hour east of where I live, and as far as I know, has no loved ones or acquaintances in the PNW. She knows I'm interested in geology and earth sciences, so she wanted someone to talk to about the article--I had to read it and report back. ;) She's much more informed than I, on environmental issues, political issues, and current events in general, so I was wondering about the level of awareness in the area that would be affected most.

The only time I ever worry about an earthquake is when I drive over the Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle that was badly damaged in a previous earthquake. It is a main thoroughfare thru Seattle, with the very best public views of the waterfront and mountains. I love it so much so I drive it every time I go to Seattle. And I let out a sigh of relief when I get to the end of it and drive off, safe until the next time, grateful that I get to experience such beauty.

I've lived here my whole life and through some big earthquakes. The last big one, which was close to my town, I was home from work that day and I heard it coming like a train, just a nanosecond before it hit. The house started shaking, the cupboard doors flew open and I watched my dishes and crystal slide out and crash to the floor. Lost some of my favorite Waterford pieces :( The worst part (as I imagine in a tornado) is wondering how much worse it will get before it stops. You just have to ride it out and see if the house comes down...but they seldom do.

Then it stops, you sit in shock for a minute, then start cleaning up and assume you won't have another bad one for many years.

I haven't read my NY'r yet, but the article has sure been a topic of conversation in the local media. All the experts they interview say it's not likely to be as bad as the article, because the worst will be offshore or deep underground. Our coasts on the Pacific are sparsely populated, not like Japan, where thousands live in tsunami zones. But people living there would definitely be at risk. There are escape routes posted, taking people to higher ground and there is lots of higher ground everywhere. People just have to be aware and prepared. I store water and food, but worry about my son, grandson and ex daughter in law. Their supply of protein bars, that they seem to live on, is pretty limited. But they could probably walk or bicycle to my house if needed.

No, I don't worry at all. But I could never live where there are tornados! Or hurricanes.

I live in Southern California, where we have a good sized earthquake every 10-20 years, and I don't worry about them unless I have to go in a really tall building. You do what you need to do to prepare and then forget it. The quake comes, you're alive or dead or injured, and you carry on from there.

Plllog's comment about being in a really tall building made me think about something ---

Many years ago, I worked for the California Board of Equalization. In early 1993, the agency had just moved into a brand new building that is 24 floors high, and my cubicle was on the 24th floor. Something like two or three weeks after moving in, on a rainy Friday, I happened to be on the 4th floor when a gunman shot his way into the building. He went to several different floors, apparently looking for people whose names he had on a list. He took hostages on the 18th floor. (He was heavily armed -- many guns/rifles and much, much ammunition.)

A Division Chief on the 4th floor ordered everyone to go to the other end of the floor, where there was a large room that locked. She wanted everyone to be safely locked away from the gunman. I was headed that way when, suddenly, a large group of people started heading our way. The Division Chief (DC) wanted to know where the heck everyone was going, since she had previously ordered them into the vault room. The guy at the front of the pack said, "I don't know. The guy just said to go this way." DC asked, "WHAT guy?" The answer was, "I don't know who he is, but he has a gun."

The SWAT team had been called in, and, luckily for us, the "guy with the gun" was a plainclothes police officer. He sent us to one of the stairwells, so we could evacuate the building. It was really shocking to get into the stairwell and see that there was a police officer or a SWAT member about every 10 steps, all with their guns/rifles pointed upwards towards the higher floors.

Everyone from the 5th floor down was evacuated, but everyone else had to stay where they were. The normal evacuation gathering place was a park a couple blocks away, but because it was raining, we were sent to the parking structure at the State Controller's building.

The intruder gunman was, a few hours later, shot and killed by the SWAT team. A section of carpet on the 18th floor had to be replaced...

About a month later, again on a rainy Friday, an abandoned briefcase was found in the cafeteria (on the first floor). The threat of a bomb that could affect the entire building meant a much larger evacuation.

For many months after that, every time it rained on a Friday a lot of employees called in sick!

Anyway, the "moral of the story" is that you never know when something might happen to you because of where you are. You cannot spend your life worrying about something you cannot control. All you can do is to be prepared, and to remain calm in any emergency.

Nope. I make two concessions to the fact that we might have an earthquake. I don't hang anything over the head of our bed and in one particular intersection I won't stop under the overpass - that came after seeing the pictures of the San Francisco earthquake.

Having lived in San Francisco for the first 20+ years of my life, I'm familiar with earthquakes and they are just a 'fact of life' on the west coast. Now living in Oregon and recently our small valley has started to THINK about earthquakes, and how our bridges and overpasses are going to fare if/when the BIG one happens. After the tsunami in Japan, and some damage to our beach area in So Oregon,(but a hundred miles west) I have noticed that there are signs posted as to how to evacuate those low lying areas. Were they posted before the tsunami? don't remember. I don't see or hear of any panic over the newly discovered 'subduction zone', or even about the rumor about the next 'ice age". Climate change, and what we are doing to our planet with our over use of petro chemicals etc..... and what we can do about that IS something we all need to think about, rather than those things that we can't control.

I also live in earthquake country. Was here for the Loma Prieta in 1989. Now that was a scary rock and roll ride. I thought our house was going to slip right off it's foundation. Then there was the gathering up of kids. DS was across town and DD was playing at a neighbor's house. But no, we don't fret about earthquakes or what may happen. We just try to make sure our homes and contents are secure, by using proper installation and strapping for appliances and tall furniture. We are not likely to have mirrors or pictures hanging over our beds in California and we don't put our beds beneath windows as a rule. Just common sense precautions and life goes on.

I do remember the first time I visited my sister when she lived in California. Her good china, and even the every day dishes were kept on the bottom shelves. She said, to keep them from falling and breaking.

I've lived in San Francisco for 40 years. Earthquakes are just something you get used to.

They can be scary, but so are hurricanes, tornadoes, flash flooding, extreme heat and cold, etc. Everywhere has potential for extreme weather.

They've been saying for eons that the left coast is going to break off into the ocean.

There's not a damn thing that I can do about it.

I'm more likely to be killed by one of the insane drivers we have here.

Re Moni's sister's dishes, a relatively small quake, the kind we report on the news but shrug off, can break dishes if it's close by. If you're near a fault, cabinet latches and lower storage of breakables, can help. Also, stud and stucco houses flex better during quakes than many other kinds, though some people prefer the steel studs because they're termite proof.

The thing about tall buildings is that they sway, some are near enough to each other to actually collide if there are unfavorable harmonics, you always want to be on top during a quake, but egress is low, and you don't want to go outside of a big building because the facade and windows can create deadly falling debris. So I hate tall buildings and wouldn't live or work in one, but I don't dwell on it either.

What to do: Get away from anything that can fall on you, like file cabinets, book cases, hanging light fixtures, heavy art, things on shelves, breaking windows and mirrors, etc. If you're in bed, and don't have stuff hanging over the bed, stay in bed unless your house is coming apart. Shelter on the floor beside a heavy piece of furniture that's higher than you are to create a "safe triangle". If a beam or wall falls, it'll land against the furniture rather than on you. If you're in a big open office or school space, with a lot of overhead lighting and other breakable and falling stuff, get under the nearest table or desk. If you're near a structural wall (support wall) get next to it. People used to say in the doorway, but that only works if it's structural, and it's more about being away from the windows than the solidity of doorways. Don't go out while the shaking is happening unless the building is falling down around you. If you're driving you may not feel it. If you do, get away from overhead electrical lines, and falling debris, and come to an orderly stop by the side of the road. Don't assume that other drivers are away. Remember they may be panicking. Stay in your car. If you get out to help people, be very aware of the road and that the world hasn't stopped. Don't get run over! If you're a pedestrian go just inside the closest door, away from glass, or up against a building away from anything falling. If you're on foot in open country, get away from trees and anything that can fall on you and just ride it out.

The common sense things to do are have an emergency plan, including a meetup place for family members. Have emergency lights that come on in a blackout and know how to put your hands on flashlights without being able to see. Don't light candles until you're sure there isn't a gas leak, and have an earthquake shutoff for your gas delivery. Also have a screwdriver whose location is easy to find and the instructions for resetting the gas and checking for leaks if your house seems undamaged. Have an emergency kit that will last you for a few days with food, water, blanket (can be space blanket), jacket, solid shoes, medications, glasses, and also keep basic supplies in your car. Bury a sealed barrel in your yard with supplies for the family, if you live in a less urban area and expect to have to shelter in place in your yard even if the house is unsafe. Always have reserves of bottled water, stored in an easy to get at place if you're outside of the house, more than you think you'll need, because your family and house might be fine, but water may be unavailable or unsafe for a week or more. Once you've thought everything through and made sensible preparations, check and replace items as necessary once or twice a year as the kids grow and supplies age. Have a family drill about emergency procedures. Then forget about it all until the next check day.

When you move anywhere, or even just travel, it makes sense to know what to do in the kind of emergency that is common where you're going (BTW, earthquakes are good preparation for bombings...). I wouldn't know what to do in a tornado like happen in the middle of the country, but I'd learn if I were going there. Once you're informed and prepared, however, there's no point dwelling on it.

I was born and raised here in the PNW. kind of in between Olychick and Blfenton . here we just have kits for a emergency. I could not live with the tornado, but as said before if you go to places , it is good to find out where and what to do if an emergency does happen.

I went through a quake when we lived in Memphis in the 70s. It was our first and only experience with one and I prefer to never experienced another. The cabinets flew open things came flying out, the walls actually looked like they were doing the wave. It was not something any of us expected, although Memphis is on a fault line quakes are rare. I never really worried about another one.

Living in the Denver area was my worst experience with weather. I was in a severe whiteout walking down our half mile driveway trying to get back home after shoveling out the driveway for my husband to get out to go get us a 4 wheel drive vehicle we could use. This was the famous blizzard of 82 the worst blizzard in over a hundred years, martial law was put into effect only 4 wheel drive vehicles were allowed on the roads and they were requesting people with them to help transport hospital workers to and from work. It started snowing so hard I could not see my hand in front of my face snow was almost waist deep. You can get completely turned around in these conditions and end up going the wrong direction. I thought I was heading to a speck that was my house, turned out to be my neighbors horse barn! But I ran into the barbed wire fence that separated our property and was able to follow the fence which probably saved me. I finally found the house, this took hours, I was about frozen even though I was well bundled up with snow boots on. The wet snow sticks and freezes on you. I was crying I was so happy to be in the house and alive. If you have never been in that kind of whiteout it's hard to believe that you can die in your own driveway but you sure can.

Having lived in Oklahoma for so long I was pretty used to the big bad storms. It is a fact of life in those areas. You do all the things that you can to be prepared. I have been through many hurricanes in my life. The worst was hurricane Audrey when I was very young. It took the top story off the huge farmhouse of my grandparents and we were all in the house on the ground level. It is never a good experience, but with hurricanes you know they are coming, you can prepare, you can evacuate. Hurricane Rita that hit right after Katrina was a horrible disaster for a huge area of Louisiana, my family was very affected by it, Cameron, Louisiana was literally wiped off the face of the earth. But it is being rebuilt, better building standards, but everyone knows it can happen again, Cameron was wiped out by Hurricane Audrey too.

Now many places especially Florida are experiencing sink holes, pretty scary stuff! Oklahoma is having earthquakes at an alarming rate! We never know with mother nature, you just take your chances and try to enjoy the ride on the good days! I would absolutely never leave the South because of weather conditions, I could have a crazy person with a death wish take me out in the grocery store these days.

Having lived in a variety of different places, all of them had their own dangerous situations. This is home, make your decision and live your life.

The "experts" predict that when (not if) the big one hits Vancouver Island (BC) it will separate the island like a big zipper, right down the middle. So like they say, if you can't stand the heat - get out of the kitchen - or in this case, get off the island! That being said, there are precautions we take to prevent too much damage during the smaller quakes that happen all around us, although no matter what ~~ our home near the ocean is at sea level and would slide right into the ocean when the big one hits. We just try to be as prepared as we can be, and don't worry about when the big one may hit.

I was raised in California too and went through all the big ones. My earliest memory is waking up on the other side of the room when I was 7 or 8 years old. Our room was tiled and our beds had wheels so apparently my little sister and I had rolled around with the waves LOL. Another time, I was in an elevator on the 12th story at work, my co-workers said the building swayed real good but I didn't even feel that one. I also remember the earthquake drills from school, just like the old films they show on tv, we had to hide under our desks. Newer buildings say 40 years old or younger have been built on rollers and houses are reinforced. The biggest danger is bridges. Remember the collapse of the San Francisco Bridge? Wasn't that basically caused by either an earthquake or damage from an earthquake? That was pretty devastating.