Is San Francisco next?
Before a storm sank New Orleans and a pair of Boeing 767s gored the Twin Towers, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (fema) drew up a list. It escaped notice in the months of second-guessing after the September 11 attacks but took on an air of prophecy within hours of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. There were three disasters, fema managers concluded at an August 2001 training session, that Americans should beware above all others: a terrorist attack on New York City, a hurricane in New Orleans, and an earthquake near San Francisco. Four years later, it’s two down, one to go.
A depressing thought.
Brad R.
Hey, they’ve got lots of gays there. I think that puts them directly in God’s scope ;-)
Ken Hahn
While a major quake in the bay area would certainly be a catastrophe, there are several reasons that one in the Los Angeles area would be worse. There are nearly 17 million people in the L. A. basin and only 6 million in the bay area. If an evacuation was necessary, thr terrain in the bay area is fairly flat, while L. A. is surrounded by mountains with few exit routes. The bay isolates those people west of it, but that is only San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, a total of less than 2 million. Most of San MAteo County could be evacuated to the south and Marin County to the north. Greater Los Angeles has few routes out. Up the coast toward Santa Barbara id a dead end as is down the coast to San Diego. Tejon Pass and Cajon Pass to the north and northeast arte nearly 5000 feet. Only Banning Pass to the east is relatively flat and that dumps you out into the Mojave Desert. I think FEMA should be more concerned with the southern San Andreas than the northern.
Another Jeff
Hopefully if the third one does happen, Bush will avoid saying that he “hit a trifecta”, like he did numerous times in 2002, as if he’d just won a bundle at Pimlico.
Boronx
It’s the only one of the two that comes without warning.
Boronx
Err, only one of the three.
Veeshir
I would suggest that one was thrown in because it’s been talked about for decades. Everybody knows that a major earthquake along the SA fault would be devastating so it’s almost de rigeur to include that one in any “disaster scenario”.
An asteroid is on the way and it might trigger the SA Fault.
A tsunami is on the way and it might trigger the SA Fault.
Michael Moore is accepting an award in SF and it might trigger the SA Fault.
It will happen, but ‘How big?’ and When?’ are the questions.
As for Boronx’s point, there is at least as much warning on a major earthquake as there was about the attacks on 9/11. The warnings of 9/11 were that al Quaeda wanted to attack America and they like to hijack airplanes so they might do something soon. Those warnings were floating around since at least 1995. The warnings on an earthquake in SF are that it is on a fault-line that likes to ‘adjust’ catastrophically. They have been floating around since at least 1905. So there have been even more warnings on a coming earthquake.
Seal Pool
In another eerie instance of premonition, there’s dialogue from the movie “Down” (http://imdb.com/title/tt0247303/) which mentions planes crashing into the “Millennium” building. At one point, a firefighter ask another firefighter who is coming down from the roof of the building, if he “saw Bin Laden up there”. This film was filmed in 2000 and released in early 2001.
Also, I am in Japan and a month before the attacks there was a mention in the English language paper here that Americans abroad should be cautions of threats against US interests abroad.
Zifnab
To be fair, they’ve been making fairly dire predictions about New Orleans since we had the technology to predict Hurricanes, The Twin Towers since the first attack back in ’92, and San Francisco since Native American tribes arrived in the region. These are not new or novel threats, they’re just big ones.
But for all three to happen within a ten year period… well, let’s just say it’s a good thing everyone in America is getting so religious cause we’re going to need alot of praying. Oh, and more snarks from Pat Robertson about punishing America for not giving him enough money.
guyermo
sad to say, but a San Fran quake isn’t the worst that could happen.
The New Madrid Fault in Eastern Missouri has been itching to take out Memphis for nearly 200 years
shark
The only thing depressing is that the big one hasn’t leveled San Fran yet…
Defense Guy
San Fran is a great city, despite being full of some pretty raving lunatics. I pray it escapes any major earthquakes.
srv
DG,
Funny, I just walked up Haight, and there’s a guy carrying some balloons and raving about some guy named Darrel.
DougJ
If all of the disasters are really the result of God’s dislike of homosexuality, San Francisco would be a logical place for Him to strike.
DougJ
When I lived in California, I read a story about a spy from the KGB who lived in the Bay Area for a few years. He said that one day he went into Berkeley and walked around the area where people have their crazy political discussion (some communists, some nutty preachers, etc.). He realized then that he liked our system better and defected. I thought that was very touching. And it made me realize that those who oppose protests (be they pro-life or anti-war) are the ones who would have been most at home under Soviet rule.
Defense Guy
srv
Ha! Yeah, there are some freaks out there, but they are balanced by the Jesus screamer at the trolly turnaround. I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. Not the guy calmly standing there with the ‘Jesus loves you sign’, the one with the bullhorn and the message of ‘love’.
It’s not that I have anything against the hippies on the haight, it’s just that at this point in my life I don’t resemble them anymore.
SeesThroughIt
I know. I live in the Bay Area, and it freaks me out. Actually, I’ve been worried about earthquakes ever since I moved out here–they’re creepy when they go down, and I think the largest magnitude I’ve felt is only maybe a 4.0 on the Richter scale.
DougJ
Defense Guy, I’m not a big fan of hippies either.
I saw this very interesting documentary about the Berkeley free speech movement that made the point that the free speech movement people in Berkeley were principled and real aims, but that the whole thing got coopted by all the drug and free love crap coming from the Haight (I realize that makes me sound like a cranky conservative).
SeesThroughIt
Fear not, DougJ–there’s nothing particularly “conservative” about hating hippies. Hippies suck.
goonie bird
Hanoi on the bay neds a big big earthquake that will shake the crap out of every damn one of those jerks in the city council and shake their bridges to bits one that will make the 1906 quake look like a miere tremble
Com Con
I hope San Fran is not next. Yes, it’s pretty far to the left in a lot of ways, but it’s beautiful, it has great food, and the people there are “interesting” (in good ways and bad). I love to visit. It’d be a real shame to lose two of our most unique cities — NO and San Fran — that way.
SeesThroughIt
Goonie Bird, why do you hate the English language so much? What did it ever do to you?
John
“The only thing depressing is that the big one hasn’t leveled San Fran yet…”
Classy.
Gary Farber
“A depressing thought.”
It is, which is why I mentioned it at least three times three weeks ago. This from three weeks ago, for instance.