Roger,
Our home, like most in the small town where we lived about 100 miles NW of Wichita, had no basement. There were no weather channels or satellites then to track storm cells, and our only advance notice of a tornado was from observing the sky if it was daylight and the town's fire siren, which sounded if a tornado was spotted and if phones and electricity still worked. Living in California earthquake country doesn't seem much different from those Kansas hazards. Most midwesterners we've visited in recent years now check weather channels and seem glad for advance notice about possible conditions even when weather forecasts are wrong.

In California we live with potential hazards besides earthquakes - refinery fires, terrorism, freeway accidents, even a rare tornado - but the state's population continues to grow. I believe most residents would welcome advance notice about potential danger because even a failed prediction is a reminder to stay prepared. Iben Browning's prediction was issued a year in advance, but the window during which he expected the earthquake to occur was specific and brief. If it had occurred, lives might have been saved because people had time to prepare, and maybe many of those people still are better prepared for a future New Madrid earthquake than they were before his prediction.

Mary C.