Can Santa Cruz survive a strong earthquake?

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Santa Cruz, CA (KION) With last night’s 3.9 earthquake in San Francisco and apartment collapse last week in Florida, can Santa Cruz survive a strong earthquake?

The answer is complicated but according to the local Santa Cruz City Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city poses a significant seismic hazard. It’s within 15 miles of at least six major failures and systems failures. The biggest threat is the San Andreas Fault, which runs through the Santa Cruz Mountains and is 12 miles from downtown.

The two most destructive earthquakes in Santa Cruz were in 1989 and 1906. Many buildings in the city center were reconstructed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which left $6 billion in damages and killed 62 people, three of them in the city of Santa Cruz. The other was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that nearly destroyed the Santa Cruz Courthouse.

The most severe damage occurred in liquefaction areas where buildings and other structures were built on loose, waterlogged soil. Liquefaction occurs when a strong movement such as an earthquake creates space in the soil that allows water to penetrate it, creating something like quicksand. On the map below, you’ll see that the entire city of Santa Cruz is at risk of liquefaction.

“In the last 20 years, we’ve probably gotten more sophisticated in terms of requiring more than code design for their buildings. However, we don’t have the mandate to require more than one code at the moment,” John said. McCloucas, chief examiner of plans for the city of Santa Cruz.

In terms of reducing bleed risk, there is no software mandate to enter and retrofit any existing building. According to McCloucas, the current requirement is a life safety code, which aims to ensure that people can escape from the building.

According to a US Geological Survey, there is a 62% chance that at least one earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater, that could cause significant damage in the San Francisco Bay Area (including Santa Cruz) before 2032.

Central Coast / Local news / Santa Cruz / Santa Cruz County / Top news / Video

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