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






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