Yesterday, I went to Zealandia in the Wellington suburb of Karori, a protected wildlife sanctuary where birdlife and native plants are being restored to pre-European settler fullness. Full restoration will take about 500 years; thus the sign reads that one round trip around the main sanctuary will take approximately 2 hours--or 500 years.
The park is quite beautiful. The tui birds sing to you as if you're the only one in the room, and the fern korus dip down to kiss you in the lush valleys. Its reason for existence, however, is the response to reverse the history of land-stripping human inhabitance. The reservoirs in the park were also once Wellington's water supply, but as Wellington grew, the reservoirs were inadequate and abandoned. As it was solidified that the Wellington fault line runs straight through the park and its reservoirs, the old water supplies were drained to half its capacity.
And there it is again: New Zealand's overpowering awareness of the eminent power of earthquakes. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I missed this similar power in California. Yes, we had earthquake drills in addition to fire drills in elementary school, and emergency home kits were sold to our families. And though the Cities of San Francisco and Oakland, just as examples, are narrowing down their inventories of "soft-story" buildings, these acts are not pasted on the fronts of these buildings or advertised in exhibitions. To the general public, it seems so black and white: either that you are unprepared and are screwed in the next earthquake, or you have an earthquake kit that will feet you for 5 days in a partially collapsed building as you wait for FEMA to never get to you (can we remember Katrina?)
I saw an article the other day in IF**kingLoveScience.com that the fault lines in the Bay Area are so locked up that an earthquake is eminent. No duh, Sherlock! Within the Structural Engineering community this has always been known, but why is it only now that a trending site like IFLS is making it news? It's reality--and we need to deal with it with more than JUST post-preparedness. Why not an article about what needs to be done to the California building stock?
Granted, its hard to compare apples with apples. The biggest differences that set New Zealand apart from California, in regards to its EQ pre-preparedness is: a) its smaller population, and b) the priorities that come with it. With California's issues in education, economy, pollution, and, dare I say it, border patrol, there is little room left for the government to fund and encourage earthquake awareness and seismic retrofitting. Even so, if investment is made into pre-preparedness, perhaps there will be something to salvage when the Big One finally hits.
I digress. Let's get back to tui bird songs and the lush site of NZ-native trees growing anew. I think I'd like to own a native New Zealand fern...
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