Government Website Offers Fun With Maps
California Emergency Management Agency gives reasons to fear
Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009 | Updated 10:00 PM PDT
Are you in danger? The California Emergency Management Agency has a nifty little mapping program that lets you input your address to see your local earthquake, flood and fire hazards.
A quick search of our own address for earthquake hazards let us know that we have high ground shaking and live in a "liquefaction seismic hazard zone," which basically means that an earthquake could cause certain types of soil to "lose strength and behave like liquid." The results also provided a checklist of things we should do to our property to prevent inquiries and reduce damages to our home and property, like "secure your water heater," and "secure your unreinforced masonry chimney."
The Seismic Hazard Zonation Maps are prepared by the California Geological Survey and are State-mandated regulatory maps that show "Zones of Required Investigation" for surface fault rupture, liquefaction and landslide hazards. They are also a ton of fun.
