How Do You Overcome Anxiety About Earthquakes? (Seattle, Bellevue: apartment, insurance)

[PhxGirl5]

Hey guys..

I currently live in Bellevue & lately, I've been really having some serious anxiety about a huge earthquake hitting here during my lifetime. (.. especially sometime soon..)

I've read that people who have been here awhile don't "worry" about earthquakes because it doesn't cross their minds. However, when it does, how do you keep anxiety over it at bay?

I've tried to rationalize things such as "everybody's gonna go somehow and someday" but that doesn't work. I think what's scaring me is the experience itself, not necessarily a possible death. I keep thinking my apartment will collapse and the people above me will be in my room by the time it's all over ...or that one of these huge monster trees are gonna come crashing through the patio door.

I'd like to get a separate opinion or another idea about this from someone else so I can ease my worries.

[Diana Holbrook]

Depends where you live and work. I think the biggest risk is something collapsing ON you. I am not worried about earthquakes at home.... our house is one story and wood frame, it might flex and shake, but it's not going to collapse on top of me. I might be more nervous in the city surrounded by concrete and glass. I guess my answer is look UP at how much might fall on you, items and structures, breaking glass and concrete... and try to look for places where the potential energy of the mass above you is as moderate as possible.

I have ridden out a few earthquakes of note.. the last one being the Nisqually quake. I was in a big brick building in Everett for that, more than 70 miles away. It cracked some in the walls and in the sidewalk. My house in Tumwater, which was much closer - less than 15 miles from the epicenter, faired very well... some lumber I had leaning against our barn wall fell over, and a ceramic cat I had in the house fell over and broke. No other damage at home. Lots of damage to masonry and concrete in town.


Every place has some kind of random event that can kill you. I think we worry about the ones we aren't familiar with. of them all I'd be most afraid of tornados in the midwest, they seem much more frequent, random and destructive. Yet I know people who live there who don't seem to worry about them at all.

[jabogitlu]

I agree. Just to take the tornado analogy, having grown up in the midland South, tornados are always there but the rarely hit your community. I have friends in New Orleans and I can't imagine what they go through every year with hurricanes, so I think it's just whatever you're familiar with.

Have you considered moving further into the rural areas a bit? Maybe living in Snoqualmie valley or something would help your anxiety.

[Transmition]

If you are in newer construction buildings, you'll be fine. It will take a quake bigger than recorded to take damage them enough, so very very low chance. Just make sure your taller furniture is tied to the walls.

Another thing it is make sure your survival kit is up to date. Enough food and water for a couple of weeks, in a bag you can grab easily.

[Hemlock140]

I grew up in the Bay Area, California, and remember well the 1957 earthquake when we lost our chimney, the 1989 Loma Prieta when the double-deck freeway fell in Oakland a block from my office, and many, many smaller ones. We have been here in the Seattle area 28 years and I only remember the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, when the huge window at my Bellevue business shook a little. There is always a chance of a real big one, and even for Mt. Rainier to erupt, but it may not be in our lifetime. It's really not worth worrying about, just be ready in case. We have earthquake insurance, a large pantry, and 2 generators, but mostly for the wind blown tree power outages. Those wind storms we worry about when we get a wind warning, but not earthquakes.

[MechAndy]

Our California house is a half mile off a fault line.
We have earthquakes there often and have seen a few of the big ones.

Small quakes are your friend because they release pressure.
Big ones not so much.
Big ones will drop bridges, overpasses, start fires, mess up traffic/supply lines and wreck havoc.

Most all will live through big quakes.
Tornadoes/hurricanes not so much.
Those can kill families and neighborhoods.

I wouldn’t trip on it.
If you must go ahead.
Maybe do some research on the actual low number of fatalities.

We keep supplies stored for emergencies and find a bit of comfort in that.
I believe that the problems that will come will pass and we will deal with it.

[happygrrrl]

I lived most of my life in California & experienced many earthquakes. It's like any other natural disaster. Maybe it will happen, maybe it will effect you, most likely it won't. I knew someone whose house was completely knocked off its foundation & was a total loss. It threw their finances into a tailspin, but they rebuilt & moved on.

I was in a high rise office building during an earthquake. The building had damage but I survived.

For myself, I was more concerned about wildfires, drought & heat waves.

There is always something. Try not stressing over things that you have no control over.

[509]

Worst case scenario....A 1964 Alaska style earthquake. They don't get much worse than that.

The estimate for that is ONLY 15,000 dead in the Puget Sound area.

Odds are you will do just fine, but as others have mentioned you do need to be prepared with a weeks supply of food and water stashed plus warm clothes and shelter.

If your REALLY paranoid, buy a RV and stash it in your driveway. You won't be able to drive anywhere after the quake, but you will probably have a comfortable place to live for at least a week.

[MtnSurfer]

We as humans have many fears and phobias, some of them more rational than others.

You must have a rational conversation with yourself and ask what the likelihood of anything causing serious injury to you really is? What are the odds? If you look up historical data, it is extremely low and not even registering as any kind of threat to life and limb statistically speaking. " I keep thinking my apartment will collapse and the people above me will be in my room by the time it's all over." Ask yourself when the last time something like actually occurred and to how many people vs. the millions who live in the PNW? A more realistic fear would be of dying prematurely of heart disease due to poor eating habits and/or heredity. What steps do you take to prevent heart disease?

I grew up in CA like many others living here and earthquakes were a normal part of life. I slept through most of them and found them mildly entertaining the majority of the time. Some shaking, a few jolts, rattling dishes or whatever. Even as a young boy, I slept through most of them. CA is also the most populous state in the nation with 40 million residents and active fault lines. Guess how many die each year due to earthquakes vs. heart disease, cancer of auto accidents? Earthquakes are clearly in the white noise as a total non-issue when it comes to real dangers when looking at the numbers.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare if that helps you sleep better at night though we never did nor our family or friends. That said, I likely wouldn't live on a fault line, in a floodplain, tsunami zone or in a lava flow path if there ever was an eruption. Then, just live your life and take care of your health. That's my take on earthquakes and the like. You'll look back in 20+ years and thank us if you put those fears behind you like everyone else has who lives out west.

Derek

[MechAndy]

I was doing a project at the Carnation Ice Cream Company right at the Cypress Structure overpass when the Loma Prieta came through town.
I took the afternoon off to babysit my daughter and watch the game so I wasn’t there.
I had to see the collapsed over pass for several weeks after that.
It took a while for me to not get nervous when traffic had me under an overpass.

When you do the math and understand that math doesn’t lie or have agendas you will soon realize how safe you are compare to most other things that might bring you harm.