Monday, October 17, is 16 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake. I won't bore you with my memories of that day and night, except to note that sudden loud bangs still make me jump, frequently under a table.
Now comes another semi-prediction from seismologists that the San Francisco Bay area (that's us) has a 25% likelihood of a 7+ earthquake in the next 20 years. Given the wide variety of nastiness that Mother Nature can dish out, I think I can live with that.
See also the USGS predictions from 2003 here. Over the next thirty years, it's 21% for the San Andreas fault (visible from my back yard), 27% for the Hayward fault (the East Bay).
Addendum: After Loma Prieta, the Grateful Dead performed (reportedly twice) Rodney Crowell's "California Earthquake." The chorus says:
California earthquake you just don't know what you've done
We may fall off in the ocean, but you'll never make us run
You're a partner to the devil, but we ain't afraid of him
We'll build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again.
8:36:12 PM 
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