I've been in SoCal for almost 43 years - I am a SoCal girl - and earthquakes are NOT "nothing." They can cause tremendous damage for those who live right near the epicenter and sometimes beyond, and it should never be taken lightly. I know people who lost their home in a quake. I've gone through Sylmar...Whittier Narrows...Landers (huge)...Big Bear (very large)...and for the love of God, NORTHRIDGE (which was terrifying and traumatizing)!!!
There is a even a little Beverly Hills fault that is basically right underneath me, and when it erupts in a 1.0 quake every so often - we feel it sharply because it's right here! Imagine if it produced a 5.0 or something!
The recent 7.1 that we had in Calexico/Mexicali was a BIG, big quake. That is nothing to sneeze at. It has now put all kinds of stress on faults north of it - closer to Orange County and closer to Los Angeles. Cal Tech revealed that fact on the news the other day. They are now trying to figure out exactly
how much stress has been put on the faults. If you lived in the kind of building I live in, where the walls shake if someone closes a door on another floor, you would realize how scary some quakes can be (and yes, this building is up to code - it's just very thinly built!).
Anyway, I had to jump in here and add that in. I think people get a little too jaded living in SoCal sometimes, not thinking about other people who have suffered a lot of damage in quakes.
But ShellyMouse, the chances of a substantial quake happening while you are in Earthquake country or at DLR are
very minimal. So I don't think you need to worry about that aspect at all.
Quakes happen every day, all over the state, but they are usually so small that they are not felt. The significant ones - moderate or large - happen infrequently. Right now, we are in a period of high quake activity, which happens from time to time, according to Lucy at Cal Tech. We were in a period of high quake activity in the mid-'80s to early '90s, and then after Northridge
scared1:
) everything quieted down for a while. It started to pick back up again last year or in 2008. But even during the periods of high quake activity, it is very
unlikely you will be here at a time when a quake happens.
You can really count on hurricanes in the gulf coast happening every year more than you can count on a moderate or large quake happening.