San Francisco Shaken, not stirred.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Napa Valley shaken.

 

No casualties reported, lots of excitement and power outages.  Back to work tomorrow.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Bummer.

[Duke87 1,070]

Best the seismic stress be relieved in non-lethal increments, eh?

 

A friend of mine in that area says he and his wife were woken up by the ensuing commotion but didn't realize it was an earthquake that had caused it and just went back to sleep.

 

If you look at the map of areas affected by this quake it seems concentrated largely in an area to the north of the bay. SF and Oakland proper didn't feel much from this.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Later reports noted some serious effects in the Napa region.  Lots of damage and some serious injuries.  State of Emergency declared as the local cops couldn't cope.

[hym 358]

State of Emergency declared as the local cops couldn't cope.

 

Generally, emergency declarations are less about overwhelmed emergency services and more about authorizing emergency action plans (which usually cannot be legally activated unless an official emergency declaration is issued).  It seems that Gov. Brown is more interested in authorizing the use of emergency funds and state emergency management services than he is in trying to put more police in the area.

 

The value of emergency declarations is that they allow relevant government authorities to do things that they wouldn't otherwise be legally able to do.  Case in point: Several years ago, Missouri was hit by a storm stronger than many hurricanes.  The electric distribution system of the St. Louis area was basically wiped out in a single blow.  Ameren, the local electric utility, suddenly found itself with months of repair work, at a price that would possibly bankrupt the company.  Faced with the knowledge that many of the area's most vulnerable residents were at risk of dying from lack of electricity for basic needs, the governor declared a state of emergency.  This did two very important things that greatly sped up the recovery process.  First, it gave Ameren a virtually unlimited source of funds to pay for recovery operations.  Second, it gave Ameren and the Missouri state government the authority to request outside help for recovery efforts.  State and federal regulations ordinarily prohibit the movement of electric utility resources across state lines, but these restrictions all wash away under an emergency declaration.  Missouri's emergency declaration allowed governors in 29 states to authorize electric utilities in their respective states to send personnel, trucks, and materials to help rebuild St. Louis.  In total, nearly 200 electric utilities across the United States sent over 20,000 personnel, over 1,000 repair trucks, millions of dollars worth of electric equipment, and thousands of miles of copper wire, all on the verbal agreement of an Ameren CEO that they would pay for all of this.

 

None of this would have been legal without Missouri first declaring a state of emergency.  California is likely declaring an emergency for about the same reason.

[Duke87 1,070]

Fitness trackers show everyone waking up when the quake hits.

 

Technology does some interesting things sometimes!

[Zelgadis 638]

Funny... When I was in Japan, I went through a 6.2M quake. It was a roller and it went on for an unusually long time. During that time, everyone stopped what they were doing for a few moments and then, when it was over, just went on with their lives. Trains were stopped for a bit while track inspection was performed. Turned out, everything was hunky-dory, and, after a 10 minute segment on the news, it wasn't spoken of again. No noticeable damage of any sort that I could see anywhere.

 

Gotta hand it to Japan and their incredibly strict building codes and remarkable technology. If a 6.0 can cause damage in a place as geologially active as California, the construction codes need to be significantly upgraded.

 

Shoot, look at Japan after their 9.0M a few years ago. There was surprisingly little damage before the tsunami showed up. Can you imagine what would happen to any city between Vancouver and San Diego if they got one of those? It would flatten everything.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The USGS and Environment Canada are both predicting a super-quake from the Cascadia fault any time now.  This is a subduction zone fault that is locked and is overdue.  Last time was around 1700 and it produced a tsunami that wiped out a village in Japan.

 

The fault is about 300Km offshore, but what is expected is a 9.0M or greater with a huge set of tsunamis.  Geological evidence has shown that a forest was inundated and killed by the last one of these along the Washington coast.

[Duke87 1,070]

Gotta hand it to Japan and their incredibly strict building codes and remarkable technology. If a 6.0 can cause damage in a place as geologially active as California, the construction codes need to be significantly upgraded.

 

As best as I am aware, they have been.

 

Thing of it is, I am sure builders in Japan strictly follow all the codes and want their structures to stand up under anything as a matter of honor. But builders in the US will cut as many corners as you let them get away with in order to maximize their profits, and enforcement to the contrary is not omniscient and cannot catch everything. At which point, the building codes become less effective because they are routinely violated.

 

You also have a lot of structures that predate the stricter codes, are not built in accordance with them, and are not required to do upgrades in order to comply with them.

 

And when it comes to public infrastructure, of course, we know that the US is notorious for slacking on maintenance and upgrades due to a perpetual lack of funding availability and/or political will.

[Zelgadis 638]

 

Gotta hand it to Japan and their incredibly strict building codes and remarkable technology. If a 6.0 can cause damage in a place as geologially active as California, the construction codes need to be significantly upgraded.

 

As best as I am aware, they have been.

 

Thing of it is, I am sure builders in Japan strictly follow all the codes and want their structures to stand up under anything as a matter of honor. 

 

 

I can say for sure, honor has nothing to do with it. Japanese construction companies are also rather famous for corner-cutting. There was an epidemic of "sick house syndrome" when I lived there. That is a situation where builders use banned, cheap, toxic materials to build houses and people who live in them feel sick.

 

To give them credit, they tend not to cut corners earthquake resistance. They take that extremely seriously.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Builders are like any business.  They will try to get away with anything that cuts costs even at the expense of safety.  The market is still a matter of 'caveat emptor'.