Surfing The Tsunami In LA
ANORAK’S Man in Los Angeles spots tsunami warning signs pooping up all over the place:
“… Approximately 400 of these signs were installed by Caltrans with a 5 percent loss due to sign stealing…
“The State of California’s Seismic Safety Commission states in their Dec. 2005 ‘Findings and Recommendations On Tsunami Hazards and Risks’ that ‘over 80 tsunamis have been observed or recorded along the coast of California in the past 150 years, 9 causing minor damage in ports and harbors and 2 with major impacts.’ It goes on to remind us of the Cresecent City tsunami of 1964 that resulted in four deaths. Finally, in that same paragraph, the study says, ‘local earthquakes can produce damaging tsunamis that will provide very little warning time.’
“This brings me to ask what value the hazard warning signs have if I’m a motorist on 101 and a big tsunami reaches up and devours me and the road with it. In the time alloted (nearly zero) to respond, there’s no way to move to high ground unless one is aided by extraterrestials.
“True to human nature, we’ve known about the risks of living by the coast for 150 years, but homes, highways, a mall, a community college, and a nuclear power plant dot the landscape along an area marked as a hazardous tsunami zone.
“Another thing that the hazard signs accomplish is that they tend to discourage development of those areas. This may be to the delight of progressives who don’t want that kind of progress, but it brings up a question of declining property values. Now that these hazard areas have been carefully delineated, could land there be devalued since the risks of living there or running a business are at odds with Mother Nature? Should it be appraised at a lower level, however, economic opportunities within the tsunami hazard zone could be unleashed. Still, one must bear in mind what nature may have in mind.
Can you get therapy for tsunami angst?
Posted: 2nd, December 2008 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
