FANNIE, FREDDIE, AND THE BIG ONE

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Twenty years ago today, the 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley 20 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, killing 60, injuring 7,000, and damaging more than 82,000 buildings. The price tag for the quake was a record $20 billion in property damage, only about half of which was insured.

 

The two decades since Northridge have seen significant efforts to mitigate earthquake risk through retrofitting, as well as the creation of a state agency in California dedicated to providing earthquake insurance to all who seek it. Alas, despite those steps, there is significant evidence that not only are we less prepared for a major quake today than we were in 1994, but that the financial brunt of any such disaster would mostly fall squarely on the shoulders of U.S. taxpayers.

 

On the mitigation front, California understandably has led the nation, making several upgrades and improvements to statewide retrofit requirements that were first adopted in 1978. In cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, building and zoning codes are even more stringent. However, a 2003 study by the Association of Bay Area Governments determined that most Bay Area retrofits surveyed in the wake of 1989's 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta Earthquake were incomplete. A 2006 investigation by Contra Costa Times reporters Jessica Guynn and Thomas Peele surveyed 35 retrofitted houses along the Hayward Fault in the East Bay, determining that only 11 would withstand the shaking of a high magnitude temblor.