Despite frequently visiting parts of the world prone to earthquakes I am glad to say that I have not experienced an earthquake, but I have a couple of tales.
Our Chief Engineer flew into San Francisco early afternoon on October 17th 1998, went straight to his hotel (Hyatt-Regency I think) and went to sleep about 4.00pm. At breakfast next morning in response to a question from the waiter he said “Earthquake? I didn’t notice.” It’s just possible that this is apocryphal – but I suspect not.
I was sitting in a conference room in Indian Wells a few years ago listening to a presenter talking about the failure mode of various types of buildings during earthquakes. At one point the presenter showed a coloured map of the Coachella Valley, which includes Palm Springs and Indian Wells. There were many more or less parallel red lines on the chart. Pointing at these he told us that these were active fault lines. Then pointing at a spot where many of these lines came together to make a wide red band he said, “This is under where you are all sitting right now.” There was a silence – then a voice from the back called out, “If I don’t stay for dinner do I get a refund?” Everyone laughed, but there were some uneasy glances exchanged.
