So you live in a place where the median house is $740,000. In some parts of the country (like that expensive “New York” place), you’d get a 4 bedroom house with a great school district. Here, you get sunshine and termites. Oh… and Liquefaction!

ABAG Tips for Living with Liquefaction
ABAG Tips for Living With Liquefaction

Did You Know? – Areas with moderate to very high LIQUEFACTION susceptibility have many more water and natural gas pipeline leaks in earthquakes.
Do you have a 3 – 5 day supply of drinking water for your family?
Do you know how to turn off your natural gas if you smell a leak?
Think about installing a gas shut-off device!

Did You Know? – Areas with moderate to very high LIQUEFACTION susceptibility have many more buckled roads in earthquakes.
Do you have a 3 – 5 day supply of food and medications for your family?
Do you keep walking shoes at work?
Does your child’s school have a list of others authorized to pick them up if you are delayed?
Do you have back-up plans for feeding and safety of pets?

Did You Know? – The Port of Kobe, Japan, handles over 10 times the cargo of Oakland. LIQUEFACTION caused major damage in a 1995 earthquake. After 3 years, 10 – 15% of business had still not returned to the Port of Kobe.
Plan other ways to get your products to other parts of the country!

I bolded the last sentence – because of its sheer ridiculousness. How can one even think of going to another part of the country?! Absurd!

Besides, everyone knows that Liquefaction means higher house prices.

Fault East of Bay Area ‘Locked and Loaded’ — Newsday.com
– New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck’s ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room, creeping toward the fireplace, veering down the wall. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits.

“It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting,” DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 2 1/2 inches from its latch, the strange bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.

DeMuynck could throw her paint brush from her front stoop and hit the Hayward Fault, which geologists consider the most dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area, if not the nation. Like others who live here, she gets by on a blend of denial, hope and humor.

I’ve heard that the cracks add more charm and thus raises the price of the house!