The column: It may not be the greatest threat that we face is earthquakes or fires, but rather human nature

If you believe in stereotypes and myths, the climate in southern California is great and people feel relaxed.

He lies.

The conditions are harsh, with strong winds and dry terrain that cook a disaster after another, and anyone is not on the edge of the abyss, as it is either in a state of denial, anesthetic or tenant.

Until the seventh of January, when the fires began to destroy thousands of buildings and harvest the lives of at least 28 people, my biggest fears about living in California were earthquakes, thanks to a journey in 2017 to San Andreas's rift with Dr. Lucy Jones.

Steve Lopez

California, Steve Lopez, is a column writer for the Los Angeles Times since 2001. He won more than twelve national press awards, and reached the Politzer finals four times.

She accompanied me while Jones was trying to persuade two buses loaded with government officials in southern California that the great catastrophe was coming, and they needed to update building laws and take other measures in anticipation of a historical catastrophe.

If the power of 7.8 degrees is hit, Jones and other earthquake scientists said that day near Palm Springs, then the earth will move, and within 10 seconds, people who stand face to face will be on the two sides that are opposite the rift diverged by up to 30 feet. In far places such as Los Angeles, buildings will collapse, lose lives, shake the economy, and millions of people will lose energy and water for several months.

I returned home and appointed an earthquake engineer to fortify my home, and since I got earthquake insurance. Nothing of it gives you full peace of mind.

The rubble remained only at the intersection of the 5 and 14th highway after the 1994 Northzridge earthquake.

(Los Angeles Times)

Last week, I bought an automatic 50 -foot mechanical pump so I could use the pool water to defend my home during the fire. I did this after I met a policeman at our fold that took me to the backyard of his home and showed me his pump, which he used when the embers fell, to protect his house and the homes of his neighbors.

It took three hours to put the hose on the pump nozzle, but I couldn't tie it tightly. I have visions about the inability to start the engine as the fire approaches, and when the fire was finally caught, the hose flew from the pump and the gas tank exploded, which led to the entire block. Do I feel safe? Less safe?

To sleep well in Los Angeles, you cannot think about these things. You have to pay away the truth of the risks.

This is the real threat.

In the end, the human nature is our weakness.

I am talking about denial, a comfortable conditioner in a living laboratory for natural disasters. I am talking about the lack of preparation and planning, whether by providing a set of ready -made earthquakes or a cleaning brush.

California is not alone in this regard. For example, the coastal state of Florida, which is hurricane over and over again, cannot wait for rebuilding each time, provided that it is close to the water as it was before. We, as a nation, reduce the importance of the role that each of us plays in the link between climate change and disaster, while we broadcast on television screens the call of our national leader to “drilling, my dear, drilling.”

In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burning houses appear from the top during a plain fire in Malibu on January 9.

(Josh Edelson / French Press Agency via Getti Imaguz)

A few days ago, I and Anna and I have been talking about this complex relationship between the danger and the human psychological, which she studied for years, and examined “all research related to psychology and behavioral economics – on how people make decisions about risks.”

Often, they decide not to make a decision.

Among all the cities that sent envoys on that round to the rift of San Andreas in 2017, many of which have not yet moved regarding the necessary seismic safety promotions. Jones estimated that about 6 million residents of Los Angeles are living with reasonable protection, and about 4 million they do not live in.

Jones did not limit her general educational campaigns on earthquakes. In 2023, Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society issued a guide entitled “From recovery to the ability to withstand: confronting the challenge of increasing the wild fires in California.”

In this, she examined the dynamics of the camp fire in Paradise, Dixie fire in Greenville, Bear fire in Botti Province, and Wolse Fire in Vinterora. The lessons learned were that societies should behave like societies before disasters occur, take into account the needs of the most vulnerable population, and put the right people in responsibility.

Jones concluded in that report that “emergency management is not just a response.” “It works to develop the ability to withstand before the disaster, respond efficiently during its occurrence, and recover quickly after it occurs.”

We have already learned, during the past two weeks, that we need improvements in every field of these areas, despite the great work that many firefighters and others have done.

Jones uses Wui as a shortcut for Wildland Urban Interface, which Los Angeles has thousands of acres, including the Palisades and the San Gabriel Mountain Base. Jones said that construction on Wui sites can be safe if it is done properly, but it should not happen without “truly thoughtful discussions … because our risk of fire is high.”

Yes, the danger is very high after months of dryness, and these fires seem to erupt every hour.

But what distinguishes earthquakes is that they do not wait for the winds of Santa Anna or dryness. This threat is continuing.

The shattered vehicles in a soft -floor housing building collapsed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

(Roland Ottro / Los Angeles Times)

“The worst nightmare for me is the combination of the two,” Jones said. “There is an earthquake when we have Santa Anas.”

Now I will never sleep.

For an early day or two, with fires spread, I thought it might have come to pack everything and move to a safer place. But I am not sure of such a place in this world, and with the escalation of the outcome of Iton and Palisades, I found myself more rooted.

The flexibility that Lucy Jones is talking about and written about it – the DNA DNA – on January 8 at the Pasadina Convention Center, gathered the people who were evacuated the power to deal with loss and uncertainty while service organizations intensified and the volunteers joined.

My friend, the social worker, who lost his home in Altadina after years of housing the homeless, pledged through sadness to re -create what he lost, which gave me a deeper feeling of association and humility. Anthony Roven had bought this house from his mother's husband, who moved to West Altadina in 1972, when a large part of Los Angeles was banned from blacks. It lacks that house and the neighborhood and plans to rebuild in that particular place.

The denial of the employees of the Elderly Care House who brought the patients courageously, and the generosity of the Altadina family who shared the love of their home and neighbors, all of this made me feel more connected to the real southern California – which is outside the legend and the stereotype.

And the connection means that we are conscious, and to take responsibility towards the Earth, the planet, the survival, and towards each other.

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