Hello California

betterworldbooks.com

I have recently read two pieces of information that have made me wary of living in the Bay Area. And this is because I am a geek. Or a dork. I'm not sure what.

1)A workshop or field trip at this year's Science Writers conference in Palo Alto (P.S. Is anyone going to this?) looks at the fault running through Oakland. The fault historically moves on average once every 140 years. The last quake was in 1868. So. Yup.

2) A blog by a company with whom Matt interviewed this morning (yes, I was reading a hydrology blog) was talking about how the levees in California are actually worse than those in New Orleans and that a natural disaster, in this case an earthquake, could do some serious damage. Serious. He referenced the scenario written by Marc Reisner in the above book. Oh, and the same guy told Matt in his interview that most of the buildings in Oakland have no been retrofitted.

So of course, I ordered the book, used of course, off my favorite online bookstore, betterworldbooks.com. Because why live in denial when I can scare myself outright. Although I'd like to point out that Marc Reisner also wrote the fabulous book Cadillac Desert, about water, and I have been told he then changed his tune 180 degrees on water. So maybe, were he still alive, he would change his mind about earthquakes. Maybe?

And before, I was thinking that Oakland or Berkeley might be a good place to live, but now I'm thinking a different part of the Bay Area might be just a wee bit safer. Hey, when it comes to earthquakes, every little thing helps, I imagine. Or hurts.

Also, Matt's prospoects for a job are looking good, so I guess I won't get to run away this time! (Love you...)