Hi Canie,

Though any work to improve structures is a good idea, I would beg to differ with Kerry on the 100 year situation. 100 years from now, even the homes that are being built today will have begun to decay and the cement and rebar will not be as strong as when new.

One remark that I heard often when living in Petaluma was from folks who lived on the east side that had bedrock and would say, "well it made it through the 1906 earthquake." Yeah, it did, but it surely isn't as sound today. The building I rode out the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in was built in 1898 and was unreinforced masonry and did have some damage, but the earthquake was more than 100 miles from here. My prior home was only 20 years old and yet in the past year developed quite a number of cracked walls without any large quakes in the area, so I'd hate to think of what it would be like in 100 years. Either in the state of arresting decay or leveled from a quake from the RCF. Neither good.

Age will no doubt count in the long run, but we all know it will never be possible by sheer economics to get every house or building retrofitted before another large quake rolls through the affected area.

But in a positive light on the new foundation headed by Max Wyss, I know he is living his dream and how marvelous for him this must be. This to shall have the test of time as all fledglings do, but to gather quite a number of noteables in its infancy surely is a good omen.

I would like to see a serious attempt made to develop a more efficient quake resistant type of home structure and see communities developed primarily from this new design. There are some homes already in use, such as "dome homes" that would fare out far better in most quakes, for instance. But they don't really fit into most conventional neighborhoods. However, I realize this is not likely to happen.

At this moment in time, there is not enough time to accomplish even in the smallest degree enough retrofitting to be ready for a large quake anywhere in a metropolitan area of this State before the next large quake arrives. To many years have elapsed since Loma Prieta and even Northridge and much stress has accumulated on other faults in the interim. Its just a reality we have to live with. But there is always hope, at all times.

Petra