U.S. West Coast Threat?

Author Simon Winchester was on NBC's "Today" a little while ago and made an interesting point: There have been big quakes in three of the four Pacific Rim quadrants the past year. Those were (in order) Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. Will North America be next?

There is the San Andrea Fault and the the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone which also has a tsunami generation risk. For that matter, the central U.S. New Madrid Fault is probably overdue.

There is no way to predict whether an earthquake is imminent. Regardless of when (and it is "when," not "if") an earthquake occurs, there are three things you should be thinking about:

• Do you have earthquake insurance on your home? I recently added it (it is not included in basic homeowners) for $100/year. While it has a relatively large deductible, can you afford to replace your home and most of your belongings without it?
• Do you have a home "survival kit"? Water, food, medical, etc. 
• Finally, do you trust your memory in a crisis? I don't. I have added the following apps to my iPhone: American Heart Assn's "First Aid," "Disaster Readiness 2011," and "Emergency Radio." Total cost? Less than $10... $6.97 to be exact.

This may seem like a lot to worry about, so let me ease your mind about one thing. Al Roker just showed a map that purported to show how the jet stream winds are blowing from Japan to the U.S. While that is more or less true, there is no significant radiation threat (i.e., high enough levels to cause a health risk) in the United States regardless of how bad it gets in Japan.