Earthquakes took millions of lives in the last 100 years. Monitoring has
barely reduced the death toll.
If you know California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, tell him to be
sure to read this page carefully!
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Who is Prepared?
Being prepared for an earthquake means a lot more than just having emergency
services available nearby. Preparedness means a comprehensive plan that
can evacuate or move people quickly and safely, with sufficiently detailed
planning and tested strategies to make the entire plan workable -- guaranteed
to save lives, not just cause greater disaster. The big 6.5 magnitude quake
that hit Paso Robles in Dec. 2003, prompted Californians to ask: "Didn't
anyone know this part of the San Simeon Fault was a high risk zone?"
Our reaction: "Yes, our scientists delineated that fault and
many similar ones in California as high-risk zones, prioritizing them by
earthquake danger and / or risk from consequential disasters." |
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Are Plans Adequate?
All big California cities, towns and counties are not well enough prepared
for a major earthquake disaster. Few have evacuation plans that will
work. Not knowing in advance when an earthquake will strike, their
"plans" dump everyone onto freeways, bypasses, and major streets,
to be gridlocked in a death trap (e.g. Oakland Freeway collapse). Packed
freeways are the last thing you want !
Worse still, if a dam above Los Angeles burst from an earthquake, the City
has no detailed strategic plan how to redistribute people in each square
mile, away from danger zones, onto safer localities.
Hence the City is doomed to become a major disaster area when a serious
M7+ earthquake strikes the Los Angeles basin in the next decade. The scenario
is no better for San Francisco: higher density high rises and apartments,
and fewer exit routes, all create a much higher loss situation. Astute
planning is necessary to save lives.
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Greatest Dangers to Human Life |
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One of the greatest perils to human life is tall-building collapse. A
7.5+ magnitude earthquake in a major city center could make the World Trade
Center loss look tiny. Compare lesser building damage above, to major
devastation and loss of life below. It's a matter of how intense
is the earthquake's shaking -- no building is immune to the severest. People
trapped in tall high-rises during a quake describe the swaying as "a
nauseating sea-sickness." More swaying brings the entire high-rise
crashing down, with everyone in it. |
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Consequential Disasters
Most people don't realize that consequential disasters of earthquakes can
cause more damage and loss of life than immediate building damage. Liquefied
mud slides are a problem endemic to coastal California, where they wipe
out housing complexes, at great loss of life. Dams burst by an earthquake
could unleash a flood, the likes of which California has never seen. Nevada
is realizing only now how they must protect cities from major dam-breach
and flood devastation caused by earthquakes. California cities like Los
Angeles have not yet faced that realization, and do not have detailed plans
to quickly and efficiently move people locally to safe areas, without creating
a city wide traffic jam, from which no one could escape. It is a
huge disaster waiting to happen ... and it will happen. So all California
cities and towns need carefully designed, very detailed, exit strategies
away from the focal points of highest danger, so they can eliminate major
loss of life. |
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Public Crises
Earthquakes can destroy schools full of children (left), transportation
is rendered chaotic or impossible (right), and shipping lines, docks, food
supplies, and the flow of commerce can come to a standstill (lower right).
In the Christmas 2004 Earthquake in S.E. Asia, that killed 250,000
people, big tsunamis along the coast caused 90% of the damage. We cannot
prevent such natural events from happening -- we have no power to stop
the forces of nature. But we can lessen the "disaster",
by intelligently designed dispersal on a moment's notice. If you can't
predict a quake, at least have a proven plan.
So being prepared is 100% of the challenge. It is both the key to saving
lives, and the primary strategy which nations across the world must emphasize
and invest in for the future. Being prepared with accurate detailed plans
for instant response by everyone, that is the key. |
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Community Disasters
Loss of electric power, no transportation, no access, road hazards, building
collapse, explosions and fires in cities -- all these community disasters
could be avoided by agencies predicting when and where an earthquake will
hit in the next few days, giving people and support services time to prepare.
Agencies like the U.S.G.S. have equipment to monitor and supposedly
predict earthquakes so as to avert disasters and save lives.
To date, neither the U.S. Geological Survey nor National Earthquake Disaster
centers have been able to predict earthquakes far enough in advance to
evacuate people. What is wrong? Your City and State governments,
and people, are putting their trust in the wrong "authorities".
Why trust your lives and futures to federal agencies who cannot fullfill
their main obligations to the U.S. public? |
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At what price?
What $ billion loss and death toll would the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
(at right) create if it happened today? At what cost are 250,000
deaths and $billions in property damage in S.E. Asia on Christmas 2004?
Decades-old catastrophes are gone, but why should you suffer a similar
disaster today? Why trust your future to agencies who can't deliver?
Why send $billions in donations to "relief funds" overseas,
while ignoring the upcoming crisis in your own country? If U.S. donors would just invest $15 million now into the right abilities, knowledge, planning and strategies to avert a
major U.S. earthquake catastrophe before it happens, wouldn't that be a
better use of funds? Do we always have to ignore the priorities that
would better our own country, until too late? Can we not act preemptively,
just for once? |
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Save your life's investment
If you live in California, or near the coast, you face the highest risk of seeing your life's investment collapse.
What if a small contribution could have saved it? Don't expect the government to secure your future -- they only
support their own agencies, who produce no tangible "preparedness plans " for people. You may wait forever,
and lose all you have, if you don't make a change in donations now. We can't solve government problems, but we
can develop the best disaster preparedness plan that will ever be done for California -- one that identifies all
significant fault zones and high risk areas, one that maps out the safest escape for each resident, and one that gives
accurate risk assessments for each direct and consequential danger during an earthquake. It will help
California as a whole, and help every resident, when a major earthquake hits the state in full force, soon ... |
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New Breakthroughs in Sustainable and Renewable Energy;
