] BIG earthquakes occur infrequently, but when they do they
] usually come unexpectedly and with horrendous power. It
] is, of course, dangerous to live in an earthquake-prone
] area, but what area in the world can we say is
] earthquake-safe? Surely the people in the Mississippi
] Valley feel they are safe, as do the people in New York
] City. Yet, New York has a fault line going across 125th
] Street that I would guess 99 percent of the city's
] population does not know about.
]
]
] And even if they did, they would likely be no more
] concerned about it than they are about La Palma.
] Americans have always lived in dangerous places - on the
] flat cyclone fields of the Midwest, on the hurricane
] battered coasts of Florida, on the flood plains of the
] South. We live in these places because we are uncertain
] about the time and place of the next disaster, and we are
] an adventurous culture. We believe that lightning never
] strikes twice in the same place, despite the many times
] it has.

[ I guess the point is, prepare for the worst... -k]