I am sitting at the table, eating my oatmeal drinking a cup of coffee. On the table next to me is a copy of “Berkeley Engineer” with a picture on the front of what looks like a stereotypical mad scientist. It is a great photo. The mag is actually from Cal’s College of Engineering. It is fun, and interesting as well as an obvious sales pitch for Engineering and the other affiliated colleges as to their awesomeness.
On page 4 there is a small article called “When the shaking stops.” Taking a look at the health care system (which is already poorly distributed in the East Bay) the author comes to the conclusion that a 7.25 magnitude. quake of the Hayward fault would effectively wreck the East Bay’s health care system. Well, duh. Perhaps even more than the infrastructures of the actual facilities, is the serious problem of transportation. Patients, staff, and supplies have to be able to get to facilities. Cue hills, tunnels, bridges, overpasses and underpasses.
Did I mention that I am sitting at our breakfast table? I can look out the window and a bit east up the hill/mountain. The fault passes less than 500 feet east of our house, up the hill from us, below the peak. It passes under a number of important structures from south of us to include several freeways, overpasses, tunnels, (the Cal Football Stadium which we can hear from our house on game days).
Our house was built in the 1930s. In 2017-18 we did major work including replacing the complete foundation, anchoring the house & the driveway. We have shutoff valves (standard here) on the gas lines. But there are houses above us on the hills – between us and the fault – which I don’t think are anywhere near as shake worthy.
Still – I would rather be at home when “the big one hits” than I would be on BART under the Bay or on one of the freeway over passes, Would it be devastating? Yes, Would the extensive health care facilities in San Francisco be of support? Probably not, our evacuation plans make extensive use of ground transportation. (see bridges, tunnels, overpass issues above).
Where does this leave me? With food, water, and enough craft supplies to last the rest of my lifetime…..
