Blayne Sucks

Over spring break I went to San Francisco to be a tourist. I know that as a computer engineer or software engineer I would likely be visiting San Francisco several times over the course of my career, but there are so many touristy things to see and do there that I am sure it would be disappointing to be in San Francisco for a conference and not be able to do any of them.

It was in this mindset that I went to visit. Of course, the day before I got there San Francisco experienced a magnitude 4.2 earthquake. Having something like this happen put it into perspective for me that I really don’t know much about what I would do if they had an earthquake while I was there. As a tourist, it’s probably not really worth planning too much in that department. The chance that the next big earthquake will happen while you are there is very low.

However, if I were to consider moving to an area that is known to suffer from a particular natural disaster, it would be prudent to plan for the natural disasters that are common in the area. Growing up in Indiana, we learned about what to do in case of a tornado. There were tornado drills in school. We saw it on the news with some regularity. It was a part of our lives. I feel comfortable that I know how to best protect myself in a building when there’s a tornado in the area, but I’m not nearly as well versed with earthquakes.

Of course, that’s pretty much the case with most Americans. I remember reading this Time magazine article back when it came out, but the combination of the earthquake right before the trip and the fact that it was mentioned on Bruce Schneier’s blog brought the concept back to the forefront of my thoughts. I really recommend the Time article, but if you are at all interested in computer security or security issues in general, I really recommend Schneier’s essay on the psychology of security.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any of the advertisements in this campaign, but I really love the idea. There are so many things to like about it, particularly in light of the Time article. Americans and people in general really aren’t good at planning for natural disasters. It’s such a great investment idea for so many reasons. Most of the time the preparation is very similar regardless of what kind of disaster you’re preparing for, but people just don’t do it.

Anyhow, to move full circle, the picture I have included in this post is a good view of some of the construction efforts they have going on the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge to make it ‘earthquake-proof.’ Obviously, this is a cultural landmark as well as an important bridge, but it’s nice to see that the folks in charge are investing in what time will likely prove to be an extremely worthwhile investment. Anyone who reads Bruce Schneier’s blog will see that this may be a more rare occurrence than the average person would hope.