As the Earthquake Advisory from last week expires today, attention turns to the broader picture. Is California prepared for the “big one”.

We’ve seen our fair share of moderate Earthquakes within recent memory with a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Napa Valley just over 2 years ago (the strongest for that area in over 25 years), causing significant damage. The most recent reminder, of course, was the 2016 Central Italy earthquake measuring 6.2 and causing 298 deaths along with severe damage.

Experts say there are deficiencies in building codes and major gaps that set apart what the codes are actually written, and the public’s expectations. Codes are written to survive a quake, but may still be uninhabitable or severely damaged. Dr. Kit Miyamoto with Miyamoto International says “People and societies in countries expect buildings to be usable after a major event, their investment be protected. Your houses, and your offices and hospitals to be able to used again. But that’s not how the code is set up, globally speaking”.

Relatively speaking, a small investment into securing our infrastructure, according to Dr. Miyamoto, up to 5% in new construction buildings and 10-15% in existing buildings is a small price to pay when considering the potential for catastrophic damage after a major event.