Half of the world’s population lives near active earthquake faults, and some may not even know it.
“Small earthquakes are happening every day near you, and large earthquakes are happening somewhere around the globe that may not be in your mind,” Volkan Sevilgen, co-founder of
Temblor, an app that estimates the likelihood of seismic shaking and home damage, told Curbed.com.
States like California and Utah have thousands of fault lines running underneath, making them the most known for having frequent earthquakes. But don’t think earthquakes only happen there—know your seismic hazard risk and how prone your area is, experts advise.
“Not everyone will be affected by an earthquake on the same level,” says Sevilgen.
There are different mapping methods across the country. Curbed.com reports: “The
Central United States Earthquake Consortium, for example, tracks central states, while the
Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup tracks those in the Pacific Northwest. While maps can lay out fault lines and track earthquakes as they happen, they are unable to predict exactly when and where an earthquake will happen, how strong it will be, and the resulting seismic hazards.”
Newer homes in compliance with the latest seismic building codes and standards will be more resistant to earthquake damage than older homes built under less restrictive codes, experts note.
“If you own an older house—[from] 1979 or earlier—it’s probably not built to the latest building codes,” says Sarah Sol, a spokesperson with the
California Earthquake Authority, a nonprofit that provides residential earthquake insurance.
For the most vulnerable properties, Sol recommends retrofitting the homes for earthquake protection and purchasing earthquake insurance.
“There’s often the perception that earthquake damage is covered by traditional home insurance, and in California it isn’t,” Sol says.
If you’re at any risk, Sol also recommends safety measures such as securing objects within your home that may fall during a quake and having a disaster plan in place. “You’ll want to have some preparation in place, as an earthquake can happen without any warning at all,” she says.
Source: “How to Assess the Earthquake Risk of Your Home,” Curbed.com (Nov. 20, 2017)
