Venezuela’s earthquakes are a somber warning for US preparedness

Forty-eight hours after two massive earthquakes tore through Caracas, Venezuela, we gazed at pancaked buildings, streets choked with debris and people digging with their hands. What we didn’t see is the horror beneath the rubble — the immense, private suffering of the thousands trapped in collapsed buildings, waiting in agony for a rescue that will never come.

As the death toll inexorably rises, Americans should say a prayer for the people of Caracas, and for themselves. For the other great cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle — that sit astride the planet’s restless fault lines, waiting their turn.

Consider Los Angeles, where this month, researchers reported that the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto faults are under more stress than at any point in the last 1,000 years—”critically loaded” after more than 160 years of silence. They identified a junction near Cajon Pass, northeast of Los Angeles, that could act as an “earthquake gate,” letting a rupture jump from one fault to the other and tear across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and the Coachella Valley all at once.

If this happened today, California would be prepared in many ways, perhaps better than any other state. It has world-class urban search and rescue teams, fire services and local governments that take earthquakes seriously.

But when the Really Big One comes, more than 20 million........

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