On Aug 24, 2011, at 9:44 20AM, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> On Aug 24, 2011, at 8:55 AM, JC Dill wrote:
>> On 23/08/11 3:13 PM, William Herrin wrote:
>>> A. Our structures aren't built to seismic zone standards. Our
>>> construction workers aren't familiar with*how* to build to seismic
>>> zone standards. We don't secure equipment inside our buildings to
>>> seismic zone standards.
>>
>> They should be.
>> They should be.
>> You should.
>>
>> Earthquakes can happen anywhere. There's no excuse to fail to build/secure
>> to earthquake standards.
>
> Tornados can happen anywhere, there's no excuse to fail to build/secure for
> tornados.
>
> [Etc.]
>
> Things that cost money are not done unless the probability of the danger is
> higher than vanishingly small. This temblor - at 5.8 with no injuries or
> fatalities - was the largest earthquake on the entire east coast in 67 years,
> and the largest in VA in well over a century. Think of the _trillions_ of
> dollars which could have been put into healthcare, public safety, hell,
> better networking equipment :) we could have used instead of making all
> buildings on the east coast earthquake safe.
>
It's more complex than that:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/east-coast-earthquakes/
And eastern cities can experience quakes of a magnitude noteworthy even on the
West Coast -- see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston,_South_Carolina#Postbellum_era_.281865.E2.80.931945.29
--Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
