Seismic Warnings go Unheeded

One of the ways to "win" and not pay attention to the risks of various hazards is to ignore them and hope that nothing happens on your watch. That can work for many years, even decades, but eventually the piper will need to be paid. Then, whoever is in office or holding the reins of power and responsibility will be held accountable by voters and others, perhaps even attorneys. 

I have called this "rolling the dice" every day. As each day passes and there is no earthquake — the people in authority are winners. The one thing we know about gamblers is that they like winning and when you are on a winning streak, there is little to stop you from continuing to roll the seismic neglect dice. But, we know — eventually — everybody loses at one point or another ...

Thus, we are where we are in Washington state. See my latest op-ed on the topic in Crosscut at Washington dawdles as megaquake looms.

It was great of Crosscut to link to all The Seattle Times articles that were printed in 2015 detailing various aspects of the issue around seismic neglect in Washington state.