100 years ago, today, there was a hella big earthquake in San Francisco. 100 years ago, they would not have said “hella”. A lot has changed since then. And some things haven’t changed.

Mainly, I want to bring your attention to this article, Bay Area far from ready for the next ‘Big One’, from MSNBC. (I found it via Cosmic Log.) There are lots of problems to be had. I’m all for spending as much money as it takes.

Scary statisic: “About half of the 484 hospital structures in the Bay Area would probably collapse after a major quake, according to projections by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Only about 15 percent would be more or less able to function, it said, and just 1 percent would be fully functional.”

Fires did a lot of damage during the 1906 quake. The news on that is more encouraging: “The gas lines are underground today, and they’re built to flex with the earth during a quake, said McLean of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. Except for those that lie directly along the major faults, many should remain intact.”

Still, we should really focus on retrofitting our infrastructure. Water could be a potential problem: “So vulnerable is the infrastructure that water-related losses would top $6 billion in a ‘major event’ along the San Andreas Fault, the East Bay consultants projected in 2002.” We really need water for disaster response and more.

After Katrina, I said we should start preparing for an earthquake now. I still stand by that statement.

On a different (but still-earthquake related) note, check out Lloyd’s entry on the 1906 earthquake. Very interesting.