This is major and will impact the world. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to bio-tech, high tech, major corporations, universities and multiple other kinds of businesses.  What makes this so scary is that most of us do not have insurance for earthquakes.  It’s just too expensive to buy and doesn’t cover much and requires a $10,000 deductible per $100,000 of coverage.  The average priced home in San Mateo County is in the low $800,000’s.  You do the math.  That’s why most people do not take the coverage.

Hayward Fault

This map, which can be seen more clearly here, shows where the fault lies and how Foster City sits right across the bay.  We all sit right across the bay but most communities on the Peninsula aren’t worried about soil that could have liquefaction.

Liquefaction happens to soil with a high water table, and the water pushes up and causes the land to turn to mush. Wikipedia explains it nicely here. Foster City abuts the Bay and most of the city sits on what was once marshland, drained, and filled so it could be built upon.  The US Army Corps of Engineers designed  huge pumps to maintain water levels on the many waterways meandering the city.  These pumps keep water levels even – no high or low tides ever in Foster City, unlike in the bay waters.  Because of these pumps Foster City isn’t in a flood zone.

But, we are living on land that rocks and rolls with earthquakes.  In fact, it rocks and rolls when heavy trucks rumble down streets!  Therefore, precautions need to be taken to protect our houses and possessions from the inevitable.  The Big One.

Scientists really know little about earthquakes except that they cause huge amounts of damage.  If you’ve never gone through a quake, it’s rarely the major rumble that causes damage it’s the after shocks that keep coming that not only cause the damage to buildings and houses but to nerves, as well.

The last big one around here, Loma Prieta, was a 6.9 jolt.  But, it didn’t happen on any of the faults surround the bay.  It happened under the Santa Cruz Mountains about 60 miles south of Foster City and because of this, there was little damage to Foster City and the communities on the Peninsula.  We were lucky.  Where most of the damage occurred in San Francisco was on landfill, in the Marina.  Now a lot of San Francisco is landfill.  Much of the waterfront area is landfill and it extends into the Financial district.  It wasn’t unusual for buried ships to be excavated when new buildings were being dug.  It was the same issue in Oakland.  Foster City did pretty well during Loma Prieta but no one expects that to be the case when the Hayward Fault erupts.

What can you do?  Simple things really.  Bolt things to the wall.  Baby closures for cabinets work well for earthquakes, too.  Don’t have anything that can fall on you over your bed.  Keep shoes or slippers next to your bed, should you need to get up quickly and there’s broken glass on the floor.  Buy an Eton wind-up radio, have batteries ready for flashlights.  Keep a large container in a place easily reached with water, food, pet foot, first aid, toilet paper and either sleeping bags or warm blankets.  Don’t expect to be able to drive your car immediately.  Roads may be blocked.  Your garage door may not open.  You must figure on being self sufficient for at least 48 hours so have a plan on where to meet family members who might be separated from you and make sure your cell phones are fully charged.  They may not work due to jammed cells.  If you have a land line phone, that should work, and it will be easier for you to call out than to get calls in.  Have a family member or friend who lives in another state be the point person for everyone to check in with and do it.

Take some time and visit OSH, Home Depot or Lowes and look over their large selection of items they stock to help you protect your home from damage.  Much of it is not expensive and every penny you spend now, you’ll thank yourself for having done it after the Big One hits.  What are you waiting for?

Earthquake!

Tuesday evenings quake has people thinking about earthquake safety again.  It’s not exactly a subject most of us want to keep top of mind, because frankly, earthquakes can be scary affairs.  It’s never the
original quake that gets you, either, it’s those after shocks that seem to go on forever and ever.  San Mateo County sits on top of the San Andreas Fault. We’re across the bay from the Hayward Fault and the Calavaras Fault, the one that errupted Tuesday evening, so we can’t escape earthquakes.

I am often asked  by clients new to California if they should I buy Earthquake insurance?  It’s a good question especially right now, and top of mind for all of us living in San Mateo County or for that matter, anywhere in
California.  Alex and I don’t carry it because it is so costly and covers so little.  The California Earthquake Authority is a one-stop web site with a lot of good information about earthquake insurance. Your own insurance agent is also a good resource for information, too.

If you do some pretty simple things to secure your home, you will likely be fine during an earthquake and
have little or no damage to your home.  Buy Earthquake Putty and use it on everything you have displayed in your house.  It’s like Silly Putty, but keeps breakables in place even during heavy shaking.  Buy Earthquake Straps and attach them to the top of high furniture and then secure the furniture to a wall stud behind it.  Baby Safety Locks for kitchen drawers and cabinets, while annoying on a regular basis,
will keep all of your food, dishes and kitchen paraphernalia inside the cabinets and not on the floor.  Not one of these is expensive and if you use them you will save yourself from thousands upon thousands of dollars of damage in a major quake. All bets are off if the epicenter is very close to you, but most of us
are not right on top of it, so my advise is for the majority out there.

I’ve written about earthquake safety before, here, and here, and I think it’s important to keep writing about it because we are all likely to keep our heads in the sand about it until it happens.  Buy a large plastic container and put things in it that you might need for the first 24-48 hours.

1. Toilet Paper & Tissues
2. Bottled Water (remember you have a hot water tank filled with water, too)
3. First aid kit
4. Tools (wrench, hammer, etc.)
5. Food – canned goods and shelf stable items
6. Can opener (non-electric)
7. Pet food
8. Small bottle of bleach for disinfecting
9. Flashlights and fresh batteries.
10. Radio and fresh batteries

If you have somewhere to put them, blankets and/or sleeping bags are a must if you can not sleep in your
house.  Most of us keep things like these in the garage, but you might not be able to get into your garage, so if you can, store them somewhere easily accessible.  Just in case a major quake hits during the night, make sure you have slippers or better yet, shoes to put your feet into to protect them from broken glass.  If it hits during the day, duck and cover.  Get under a table or desk, away from windows or heavy objects that might not be secured to a wall.  Or stand in a doorway until the first wave finishes.  Do not leave the building you are in until the quake has ended, and then get away from the structure if there is a chance an after shock could cause additional damage.

Finally, have a plan on where to meet and how to communicate.  The first hour after the quake on
Tuesday night it was almost impossible to get a cellphone signal.  Had this been a major quake, cell towers might have been completely out of service.  Besides, emergency personnel need to use cell signals.  It is easier for someone outside of California to call you than to have you call them so set up someone as the contact person and let them try to reach everyone over a several hour period.

Living in earthquake country is a fact of life.  We know there will be another big one,  we just don’t know when or where.  Only you can be prepared, no one else can do it for you.  What are you waiting for?