Earthquake

I live in California and have been in several quakes over the years, most small, but some fairly strong. Just today we had a fairly large one of 7.0 and the warnings went out about after shocks and tsunamis. I moved out of the San Francisco Bay Area several years ago, and now live in the mountains above and to the north of Sacramento, so I’m not in earthquake country anymore, but when the big one hits, I and everyone else will feel the impact. Not just the shaking, but the after effects. They will be enormous.

The biggest earthquake we have had in the U.S. was in Alaska, and it was a 10.5. That’s big. It destroyed towns, killed people. It was deadly. But it was back in the early 1900’s, the towns were small, not many people lived in the area, so the impact was minor. San Francisco had the Loma Prieto quake in the 1990’s, it was a 7.9, also big, and it did lots of damage, buildings collapsed, freeways collapsed, bridges collapsed, people died. The 1904 San Francisco quake did major damage to the city. And there was probably economic damage done nationwide. But those will all be minor compared to the big one we are all expecting to hit one day soon.

The Bay Area is now over populated, like L.A., all the towns run together and the population is somewhere in the region of 8 million. So the big one will impact so much more than it did in 1904 and 1990. The economic impact will effect so much more.

‘It will start with a huge jolt and sustained shaking. Tall buildings in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose will tumble and fall to the ground. Houses will crack and split apart and fall off their foundations. Freeways will crack and become unusable, freeway overpasses will collapse, bridges will collapse, the entire infrastructure of the Bay Area will be destroyed. The power will go out. The phones won’t work. Mass confusion will happen.

depending on where the epicenter is, if it out in the ocean, a tsunami will happen, and as big as a 10.5 earthquake is, the tsunami will be huge. It will roll in to the low lying Bay Area land, which is filled with houses and biuldings. And totally flood the area. It could conceivably flood the Central Valley all the way up to Sacramento and down to Bakersfield.After all, it was an inland sea when California was first settled by the early pioneers. It could be again. The destruction would be massive. But that would just be the fairly immediate result of the quake. There is so much more.

Most of the active or dormant volcanos in California would erupt. the area isn’t called the Pacific Rim of Fire for nothing. The whole west coast would be affected. Oregon, Washington, even British Columbia, Canada, Alaska. If we are having a bad day, even the super volcano in Yellowstone, Wyoming could erupt. But besides all that, in the immediate aftermath of the quake and ensuing tsunami and eruptions, refugees would flow out of the cities by the millions and attempt to get out of the area. There won’t be food, water, power or communications available to them, there won’t be police or national guard or army available to come to their rescue. Or ours who are not refugees. Mass looting will occur. Civil order will break down.

and that is just in California. The stock market will crash. Economic chaos will occur at levels we have never seen, all over the country. The U.S. will be paralyzed.

the fleeing refugees will be desperate, and as they arrive in areas not affected by the quake or tsunami, will overrun the towns or properties they come to and just take the food, shelter, vehicles, and other things they will need from the people they meet. So you will have to defend yourself and your property from the refugees. It will become desperate.

Am I over doing the scenario? Maybe. But I,ve seen how people react to events in the past, much smaller events like blackouts in New York City, floods in New Orleans, even silly things like the cabbage patch doll craze in the 1980’s, where small riots occurred by normal people scrambling to get a doll. So when the BIG one hits, all the things I have imagined could happen. And I don’t think we can fully prepare for it.