Most of us age 30 and beyond have either experienced an earthquake or have read about the impact of those that have taken place during recent years. This writer's mother was six years old during the great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. She has told many stories of what happened in that city over a period of several days after the tremors had ceased and while the subsequent fires raged.
The impact of more recent California earthquakes (during the last 20-40 years such as in Sylmar and Oakland in particular) has resulted in significant modifications to building codes to better protect the public.
Did you know for instance that the states of Washington, California and Illinois have the most stringent requirements for the licensing of Structural Engineers? For Licensure, each of these states require candidates to be subjected to an additional day of rigorous testing above and beyond that required by the other 47 states. The primary reason for this is that these three states have known Faults that could result in more damaging earthquakes than might be experienced in other areas of the country.
Structural Engineers are basically licensed in one of two functional areas, one having bridge and the other building expertise. Of course, some knowlege of both are required during phases of these engineer's educational and licensing process.
To people living in the Puget Sound area that own or will own land what is the point of this discussion you might ask? It is that a number of areas in the Puget Sound Region lie over major Fault Lines. In particular the Seattle Fault Line that runs in a number of directions including West beneath Bainbridge Island. The details of these faults have been recorded and analized primarily through Seismic-reflection data. (See http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/pacnw/actflts/index.html)
Something to consider when living in our area is whether to take out Earthquake Insurance. An Insurance "expert" and long time friend, Bruce Riggens of Poulsbo explained that for a $200,000 home, for example, earthquake insurance costs approximately an additional $ 200 per year above the "standard" homeowner's policy. In addition to that cost, a sizeable deductable is built into these policies some of which could go as high as 5-10% of the replacement cost of the home. Bruce categorises Earthquake Insurance as a kind of "piece of mind" insurance.
We are blessed in this part of the world in that we arn't subjected to tornadoes, hurricanes, extremely cold winters or hot summers. However, we do have a higher risk of having an earthquake than most areas within the United States. One can only guess whether additional insurance is worth the cost. A statistician may not be willing to give odd's on the possibility of a major earthquake hitting the Puget Sound area anytime soon. This writer can only speculate that most of us are rolling the dice on this issue.
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