Prepping For 'The Big One' And The Inevitability Of Natural Disasters

Published April 17, 2018 at 11:00 AM EDT

FILE - In this Oct. 19, 1989 file photo, workers check the damage to Interstate 880 in Oakland, Calif., after it collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake two days earlier that killed 63 people, injured almost 3,800 and caused up to $10 billion damage. (Paul Sakuma/AP)

How do you prepare for the Big One? We’ll talk with a seismologist who looks at lessons from history—from as far back as Pompeii.

Guests:

Lucy Jones, seismologist, founder of the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society and author of “The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)”. (@DrLucyJones)

Lauren Augustine, Director of the Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events at the National Academy of Sciences.

Excerpt of “The Big Ones”:

Additional Reading:

The New York Times: San Francisco’s Big Seismic Gamble — “ ‘Ten percent of buildings will collapse,’ said Lucy Jones, the former leader of natural hazards research at the United States Geological Survey who is leading a campaign to make building codes in California stronger. ‘I don’t understand why that’s acceptable.’”

Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions. We know the risks of natural disasters. Many of us have lived through one. But my guest today, the renowned seismologist Lucy Jones, says it’s totally human to forget. We want control; not randomness. And so, we turn our backs and do little to prepare. Jones reminds of what’s come before – starting with the volcanic catastrophe that wiped out Pompeii – and she urges us to take action.

This hour, On Point: Preparing for the big ones.

— Melissa Block