Living in California is a challenge. Every day, Golden State residents live on the edge of another natural disaster. And, having lived in California for 30 years before moving back to the East Coast, I’ve experienced my share of them.

In 1982, a 100-year landslide in Marin County wiped out dozens of homes and swept away a big chunk of our property, barely sparing our house. In 1995, the Mount Vision fire destroyed 45 homes in Inverness Park and was racing toward our nearby home in the village of Inverness. A fire crew camped out on our lawn overnight. Our car was packed and headed downhill, in case we had to evacuate. Luckily, the winds shifted and firefighters were able to stop the fire a half-mile from our house.

Living in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I also experienced my share of earthquakes, mostly minor, but I’ll never forget the two most devasting. First, in 1989, the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake, which struck during Game 3 of the World Series at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, killed 63 people, injured more than 3,700, and collapsed major portions of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Five years later, in a beach house in Malibu, we experienced the full force of the disastrous 1994 Northridge........

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