How The Bay Area Is Preparing For The Next 'Big One'

"Another Big One is inevitable; it is just a question of when"

"The 20th Century was a period of anomalously low earthquake activity; and it was during this period that the population developed and all the infrastructure was put in."

"The Bay Area is running hard to catch up. It has spent or is committed to spend $30bn on seismic retrofit projects - and that is just public facilities"

"You can live without electricity, you can live without petroleum - you cannot live without water."

"Over the years, San Francisco buildings were built to an architectural style that will do them few favours in a big quake."