The CA.gov website has a new service called MyHazards, where you can enter an address and see what the potential earthquake, fire and flood dangers are and how to best prepare for them.
Of course I had to try this for the Richmond District and you’ll be glad to know that we are in pretty good shape for earthquakes. This suprised me a bit considering how much of our neighborhood used to be sand. A quick search on 94118 showed that we are in area of high earthquake probability and are subject to “HIGH ground shaking”. In other words, get ready to shake, rattle and roll if a big one rolls through.
Even so, the Richmond District is excluded from other scary labels such as “Earthquake-Induced Landslide Hazard zone”, “Liquefaction Seismic Hazard zone”, and “Earthquake Fault zone”. When you look at the map, you’ll notice that nearby areas like the Marin, Baker Beach and Ocean Beach are labeled as earthquake-induced liquefaction areas.
The MyHazards site also lists out things you can do to prepare and try to mitigate the damage from earthquake, fires and floods. The site did not have flood or fire hazards mapped out for our area, but for earthquakes they recommend things like securing tall furniture and bookcases and other unmounted appliances and items around your home and garage (including links to detailed how-to pages on daretoprepare.org).
Go here to use the MyHazards site; just enter a street address, zip code, or city in the top search box to get started.
Sarah B.
[Via Curbed SF]
This is great to get people thinking about earthquakes and preparing for them! We DO in the Richmond have many soft story buildings(buildings with garages underneath) which weaken stability. Legislation is in the works to get property owners to do retrofitiing but the age old question who will pay. If anyone is hurt in the next quake, we actually only have 1 hospital that meets the state earthquake standards- Kaiser hospital on Geary. Another reason to get the free training offered by the Fire Department-NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) that will prepare you and your family!