Scared to Move to California...need Advice

I'd be more worried about cost of living differences. That part of the country is super expensive!

As someone who was in Sylmar in the 1971 quake I can only tell you this, I would STILL be living in CA if I had my choice to make. I am in AL for my DH...It IS true you cannot be totally prepared for an earthquake, but you cannot for a, 'flash flood' or a bad tornado, yes we get a little warning but really it is never enough. Anchoring furniture isn't going to get you anything but a hassle when you clean. The, 'emergency kit' is a good idea...

You will LOVE California it is indeed the BEST state to live in & I have lived in MANY!

Go, enjoy, rejoice in the financial freedom of your DH's new position...AND BREATHE!!!

I don't think twice about earthquakes, and I live in CA. Nor do I worry about shooters in shopping malls. Life is a crapshoot, no matter where you live.

Well Florida has sinkholes, right?

Everyplace has something to fear.... If you want to find something to fear. Can you try to find what your anxiety is REALLY about and deal with that instead of focusing on earthquakes, which is the "easy, rational" fear to latch on to? It might help you if you talk to someone specializing in transition events. They can help you get to the bottom of what is really scaring you.

Living on the Juan de Fuca faultline/the Cascadia Subduction zone... I understand and appreciate your concern. I even had a moment of apprehension last night, to tell the truth.

Here's my only consolation: it's acceptance. I accept that I live on a planet which has had five mass extinction events. No species is exempt from what the earth does. I know my place in the world-- not one of great importance. Yes, it would be horrifying should something happen, but there is NOTHING I can do to control this.

Accepting that I have zero control over this is actually a comfort. No amount of logic or anxiety will help. I spent many nights worried that the school I send my son to will (inevitably, it's nearly 100 years old) wind up as a pile of bricks when the big one hits.

I've been tempted in those dark moments to move. But where? No place on earth is 100% catastrophe-proof.

Instead, I also have chosen to focus on doing what I can do: educating myself and my son on what to do if an earthquake does happen, etc. Preparedness is iffy-- esp. when you live in a house where we use all three levels (basement office , ground floor where kiddo sleeps, attic where our bedroom is) All we can do is go forward and choose not to live in fear. I am not willing to give up the richness of where we live in order to evade 3-5 minutes of catastrophe which may or may not happen in my lifetime.

I hope this doesn't seem dire. We just cannot predict exactly what the earth will do when it does what it does. So, I try to limit my anxiety to a few moments and then accept that tragedies happen all over the world. Nothing makes me 'special' in that case, and so instead of worrying, I try to focus on enjoying what I have for here and now. In my case, it's a cute Kiddo pretending to be a zombie right now. I wish I could protect every element of his life and my own... but we just can't. And so, this is why I choose acceptance. I don't know if it will help you, but it helps me a lot to know I'm just one part of the great life story of the Earth....

I have lived here my entire life. You are worrying about a possible event you have no control over, honestly I don't know anyone who worries about earthquakes much. When there is another big one it's not like the whole state will break off and float away.

Northern California is my favorite place in the world. You can go from stunning beaches to exciting cities to ancient redwoods and then hit the ski slopes all in the same weekend. You will not have to pay for a vacation plane ticket for years as you can spend the next decade exploring your own backyard and never do the same thing twice.

Once you're here earthquakes will be the last thing on your mind. We have an emergency kit but nothing is bolted to our walls. The frequency and danger of hurricanes seems much more scary to me.

I lived immediately outside the san Francisco area (Fremont/Livermore) from Birth until I was almost 50. My parents- 70 years. So I have some experience here.
Let me first off say in all those 50 YEARS I can only remember perhaps 3 or 4 very, very small ones where you barely even feel them. You think you felt something, so you look up to the lamp to see if it might be swaying. It might be swaying ever so slightly. That would be about the extent of it. No big deal. nothing damaged, no one hurt. That is the typical earthquake. We did have the one big one, the Loma Prieta. Yeah, we felt that one. And there was damage in certain areas of SF ( I recall one block of houses that were built on landfill in SF marina slid off thier foundation. and that is what you get when you build on chaff/landfill. ) and the bridge and overpass.. But, nothing really in the cities around SF. Even with that large of a quake, my house wasnt damaged at all. No one I knew had damage. You have to understand, they really sensationalize and hype that stuff up on the media. They play it over and over and over until they instill fear in people. The SF bay area covers a LOT of square miles, and only certain small portions of all that area showed any damage- again mostly in SF. I would move back to CA in a heartbeat if I could afford it. That area is BEAUTIFUL and it has the top weather, only 3% of the world has that kind of climate. Close to beaches, mountains, redwoods, wineries, huge amounts of state parks, there is money there so some of the East bay cities are really nice - like Livermore, Pleasanton, Danville, San Ramon. San Jose has been trampled and is kind of in decay mode. So is fremont, Milpitas, Hayward, Sunnyvale, etc.... If you move there see if you can live in the East bay which is BY FAR the nicest area for your money. Go on City-Data.com to get stats on population, crime, pics, etc. Livermore was in the top cities for Low crime and it just had a downtown remodel with outdoor restaurants, fountains, and trees lined streets. With rolling oak tree studded hills, and 40+ wineries, it made the list for top places to live in the country. I lived there (in Livermore) 20 years and it was the best time of my life.
Ive been here in Boise for 3 years and have seen much more excessive weather problems and such.

I've never heard of any reliable predictors of earthquakes, so that "next 20 years" thing is pure speculation. The devastation from the hurricanes has been far worse for most people in the last 50 years of the US than from the earthquakes. Yes, the suddenness is frightening, but even if you know a hurricane is coming, there's not much you can do about the flooding and wind damage!

I have friends and family who have lived in California (Various areas) for 15 years and never noticed anything major. I live in the northeast, and we were devastated by Irene and Sandy and many unnamed ice storms, and I have friends in the midwest who've dealt with tornadoes. There's always something - it's the unfamiliar that scares us. So while you can brush off hurricanes because you've dealt with them, other people are absolutely terrified (ask a million of the people who went through Katrina who've had to leave Louisiana and Alabama because of the stress).

San Francisco is a beautiful area with so much to offer. Museums, fun streets, waterfront, history, moderate weather, with lots of enrichment in the surrounding areas. Millions of people live in California and go about their daily lives without worrying about what could happen. Many of them would never move to Florida because they are fearful of hurricane, sharks, the Gulf oil spill and much more. It's all relative.

On another subject, moving children at a young age is much much easier than when they are teens and have tight social circles and teen angst. It will be much easier to settle your children in a new home at this age.

That's funny because SO many times I have wondered how people live in Florida and that area with all the hurricanes and tropical storms. Or in Kansas, etc with tornadoes. I have NEVER worried about an earthquake. I love California and would not live anywhere else. Although the Bay Area is not my favorite. Fun to visit, but not for long.

I lived in California 7 years and I can tell you that after awhile you just don't worry! Once you get there and are settled in routine you will be less likely to worry. In 7 years I felt two earthquakes and they were very small causing absolutely no damage to anyone.

Can I guarantee your safety? NO, but nor can I guarantee that you won't be in an accident in your car tomorrow. I read a statistic that your chance of dying in a car accident is 1 in 100. However, dying in an earthquake in California..... 1 in 200,000!

:)

Talk to the locals. I'm sure that that locals or the first responders will have tips on how to be prepared for an earthquake, what happened a major one hit, etc. I have friends who lived in those areas. While you always fear "a big one", most earthquakes are smaller and don't do much damage, especially in an area built to handle them. In the East Coast, we've had a few and our rock is different and our buildings aren't built for it.

As far as fearing "the big one" there are so many things in this world to be afraid of and things you don't even know to fear yet. But IMO, you have to prepare as best you can and remember that life is no guarantee. Some nutcase could shoot up the mall. Blow up a pressure cooker. Run a red light. If you're on the wrong end of LIFE, things could go badly for you. But if you know, "Okay, we have x supplies for x days and if the roads are clear we can drive to x location," then you have less to fear. Have a plan. If x happens, do y. Don't let your mom fuel fear.

You aren't afraid of hurricanes because you get advanced notice. But if someone from CA moved to FL, they may be just as afraid as you are of earthquakes. It's all a matter of preparation and perspective.

I grew up in the Bay Area, and it's just not something that we ever worried about. Most earthquakes are so small that if you feel them, it feels like someone just kicked your chair. I too lived through the 1989 earthquake, and it is the only one that I've ever experienced in the nearly 30 years that I lived in California that caused any loss of life. Just think about how many people die due to extreme weather every year - from that perspective, earthquakes do relatively little damage. Plus, in the years since that earthquake, construction techniques have improved so much that buildings and structures are able to withstand quite a lot. I was in San Diego a few years ago when a 7.2 earthquake hit, and there was no damage whatsoever. No one outside of San Diego even heard about it. Don't worry. Enjoy your new city.

I could never live in California. The earthquakes are a BIG issue for me but that's not the only one.

The cost of living there is what...3 times higher than anywhere else? If a person is making $50K in Oklahoma it would take $150K to live in California and the standard of housing there would be much lower.

What I mean to say is this.

Watching shows like House Hunters really shows to cost of housing all over. A huge house in the central USA is around $100K now. The same house would be well over $1 million in California or some other high population state where housing is ridiculous.

I had a friend who moved to another state and they thought it was an amazing opportunity. Her hubby was making something like $60K-$70K per year here. They had a house, 2 cars, 3 kids and planning to have more, etc...

When they got this job offer is was way better money, something like $85K or $90K per year. This was years ago though...

When they moved they couldn't afford a house, couldn't even qualify for purchase without paying nearly half the home down and ended up in a rental, they had one more child then stopped. They didn't realize where they were moving had so much higher cost of living.

So before you guys decide to accept this job offer be sure you'll be able to afford housing you'd really want to live in. Think of how you'll live on his income and live in a home that you would allow your children to live in. I think of Welcome to Joe's Apartment or Secret of My Success. Those guys both lived in apartments that people would not live in without major renovations and pest control before they even went in to clean.

Unlike hurricanes, earthquakes come without warning. Earthquakes are just a part of California living. Even if you go your entire life not experiencing a major earthquake, there is an excellent chance that you will feel a few tremors here and there. They can be pretty freaky and leaving you wondering if "the big one" is about to hit.

I lived in So Cal during a few of the major earthquakes. During the Whittier earthquake, I thought my apartment building was going to fall on top of me. All I could do was hang onto the door frame and wait for it to be over.

That being said, I would still move to CA in a heartbeat if I could! There are no guarantees in life, and life in the Bay Area (if you have a solid financial footing) is wonderful. The public schools are a little messed up though, no matter where you live and how affluent you are.

Keep an emergency preparedness kit in your home, teach the kids where to stand if an earthquake does hit, and never put any breakables on a high shelf. Try to buy or rent a home that is newer construction. They are built to higher seismic design standards. Good luck!

I mean this really nicely when I say you just have to get over it. You can't live in fear every day because earthquakes - big or small - are very rarely felt in CA. I have lived in southern CA for 30 and can remember only a few really big quakes. No one I know has ever been injured by a quake and I only have a couple of friends who had minor damage (broken glass type stuff) in their homes. While earthquakes are, obviously, more common in CA, some of the biggest earthquakes in the country have actually occurred in the south, along the Mississippi River and even in the Northeast. While you may have more warning about a hurricane, or even a tornado, the damage those storms do is far worse than any earthquake in CA (you can't compare earthquakes here to those in places like Haiti and SE Asia where the buildings aren't made the same way).

Also, if it will ease your mind a bit, there was a story on the news this month that CA might adopt an earthquake warning system similar to ones used in Japan and Mexico. It may only give a minute or two of warning but, as with a tornado, that might be all you need: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/california-earth...

Bottom line - stop worrying about it. If everything else about the move is good for your family, go for it. You're just as safe in the SF Bay Area as you are anywhere else in the country.

I'm from Northern California and I do not live in fear. I was around for the 1989 earthquake and was without power and this is pretty much the only earthquake I recall that caused damage. Our house was 25 miles to Santa Cruz the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta and we did not have any damage.

To me hurricanes seem much worse because they seem to happen several time a year and there is so much damage. One the plus side you get a warning and we do not have that with an earthquake. Most earthquake are not even noticed by people.

If you are that scared there are certain area that you might want to avoid. The Marina in SF is built on landfill. Landfill is not as stable and the home are at greater risk of being damaged. Also, mudslides, fires and floods are more common than earthquake damage, so consider these when looking at the specific location.

If you are going to send your kids to public school I would look at school districts. There are some amazing school in the San Jose area (Saratoga, Los Gatos, Palo Alto for example). I also agree that the East Bay has more bang for your buck (Walnut Creek and the towns Gailsky B. said comes to mind, but I have no experience with the schools here). I would not rely on a realtor or internet to tell you if the house is in the school district. I would call the school and give the address to verify. You would be surprised how the school lines are drawn up. Side note, the houses are extremely expensive so 'bang for your buck' is relative. I have a feeling the houses are much nicer in FL for the same price than they are in the Bay Area.

I honestly can not think of a better place to live.

Besides preparing with emergency kits and plans it might be a good idea to get some therapy to help with anxiety.

I have a friend who lived in Lyttleton near Christchurch in NZ. She was at home when the quake struck and while they dealt with that OK, it was the constant aftershocks which drove her away. She now lives in London. She hopes to return if the quakes settle down.

I am a 6th generation Californian. My grandmother was 13 when the 1906 quake hit. It threw her across the room, but mind you, the fault went right through the family farm . I lived through the 89 quake. It was bad, but we survived. We it came time for us to buy a house, we did insist on buying a post 89 home that had piles that went 18 feet until they hit bedrock. We may have another bad earthquake and our house may be severely damaged, but I am fairly sure that we will not be seriously hurt. We do bolt furniture and we have a plan and have trained our kids. Life is unpredictable; live it and be sure to enjoy it. Don't live in houses built on fill, on sheer hillsides and never live in a apartment with parking that is underneath living quarters.

Oh sweetie...don't worry about bolting the furniture down. The cost of living here is gonna knock you off your feet!!

I have lived in CA my entire life..almost 40 years. I don't personally know one person who has died in an earthquake or had their house crumble around them..but I do know people who have died in a car accident. Please..don't live in fear of the daily what ifs.

Stop thinking about earthquakes. Start planning where you will live and treat this whole journey as a fun adventure. Your anxiousness or excitement will spill over to the children..and granny. Calm down and start getting excited.

California is a beautiful state with so many places to explore, and so many cultural experiences to share with your children. I live about 45 minutes from San Francisco. We love where we live. I rarely think of earthquakes.

You ask how we deal with earthquakes? We have an emergency preparedness backpack for each member of our family. Everyone should do this..not just those of us in the tremor capitol of the world :) The biblical scripture says, "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." I am prepared and leave the rest to the Lord. All my worries and fears I cast on Him and I get peace in my heart and mind from his power.

Good luck with the move!! California is always happy to have people move in..we are losing so many wonderful people and businesses due to the high cost of living. Business are taxed through the wazoo here and also so highly regulated. We welcome newbies!!

Move to New York City! No earthquakes here!! And usually no hurricanes....

I have lived in California most of my life. Had part of my house hit by lightning and a tornado went right near our neighborhood living in Indiana when I was little. Never have had any damage from an earthquake here in California.

You prepare yourself for an earthquake, but don't live in fear of them. I could never live in Florida because you know you're facing disaster every single year. Forget it.

Earthquakes don't happen all the time. When they happen, they tend to shake a bit and that's it. Yes, the big one is predicted. But there have also been "big one" hurricanes on your side of the U.S. a lot more frequently than earthquakes out here. Things happen. You don't go walking around in fear. You live your life.

The Bay Area is an awesome place to live. I grew up there. You can't beat the weather and people there are educated and friendly. Tons of things to see and do. If homes weren't so expensive, I'd still be living there.

ETA: Stay away from Redwood Shores. It's built on land fill.

I have lived in CA my whole life, and was even here when the "Big One" hit in 89. Yes the ground shook and it is a bit scary, but then the rumbling goes away rather quickly. Half of the earthquakes you won't even feel. You will say was that an earthquake. I like the thought of not knowing. With Hurricanes and tornadoes you sit there waiting and waiting for something that may or may not get you. You really have nothing to worry about.
You may also want to move closer to San Jose rather than San Fran. When we had that big quake, San Francisco had more damage than San Jose.