The Big One could leave 250000-400000 quake refugees in California. Where will they go?

(LA Times) - When a catastrophic earthquake hits California buildings will topple and potentially hundreds could be killed. But what gets less attention is the wrenching aftermath of such a huge temblor which could leave whole neighborhoods torched by fires uninhabitable and hundreds of thousands of people without a home. Officials are grappling with where all these quake refugees would go. In the San Francisco Bay Area more than 400000 could be displaced in a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault which directly runs underneath cities like Berkeley Oakland Hayward and Fremont said Ken Hudnut the U.S. Geological Surveys science advisor for risk reduction. And its possible that more than 250000 people in Southern California could be forced out of their homes after a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault Hudnut said. Not everyone will need to stay in public shelters many will stay with relatives friends and hotels. Still more than 175000 people may have no other choice than stay at a public shelter in Southern California which could be could be challenged with acute shortages of food water and medicine according to ShakeOut a USGS report simulating a major Southern California earthquake. And in the Bay Area so many buildings built under minimal codes could be so damaged many may be forced to move away for at least several months and possibly permanently" due to the regions housing shortage according to a separate USGS report on a hypothetical Northern California earthquake called HayWired. So many people will be displaced they wont be able to stay within the metro area" Keith Porter a University of Colorado Boulder professor and chief engineer of the USGS earthquake reports said of a major Bay Area earthquake. So theyll move away just like they moved away from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina." Arizona recently took a major step in dealing with this question. Officials in May launched a full-scale exercise that simulated a mass exodus of 400000 evacuees from Southern California. The drill gave emergency workers a chance to consider how they would respond to the many elements of the disaster: providing food and shelter helping unaccompanied minors assisting in family reunification and dealing with the transportation and resource hurdles. The exercise was aimed at beginning to think about how to deal with such a refugee crisis though experts in California said its unlikely that many people would end up in Arizona. It may actually be quite difficult to leave California after an earthquake moves one side of the San Andreas past the other by as much as 30 feet severing routes to Phoenix on Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas on Interstate 15 at the Cajon Pass. Read More