We survived the storms so far

Except for the mudslides near Ojai (pronouced "Oh Hi!" because it is Spanish) I think most of us survived okay unless people are snowed in in the Sierras and Cascades that haven't been found or rescued yet. But, around here not many branches came down and mostly it's leaves all over my deck out of trees blowing in the winds and pieces of bark and a few branches. I noticed looking around that moss is growing now very heavily over the front tips of our Cement Roofing tiles.

IF you want lifetime Cement tiles on your roof remember a house that has tiles is much heavier than one that doesn't and you have to stress your house for the extra weight lifetime roofing tiles bring to your roof. You still have to periodically have them lifted up and change the tar paper underneath them but other than that (unless you break one by stepping on it wrong (which I have done a lot the last 20 years by the way) they last forever even with moss growing on them from winter and spring weather here on the northern coast of California.

For example, a huge tree is said to have fallen across the living room roof of our house before we moved in here in 1999. But, it didn't break the roof at all only the tiles because our house is built so strong and solid. The only evidence now of this tree falling on the house is a 1/2 inch movement of a vertical support up near the ceiling. Otherwise, this is an amazingly well built home. Also, where we live it is granite underneath so even in an earthquake it is a much better place to be than sand. Many places built on sand landfill were thrown off their foundations in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake centered in the Santa Cruz mountains about 6 miles from UCSC then from Watsonville to Santa Rosa.

Though our building codes have been strengthened across the state a lot since then there really haven't been very serious earthquakes in Northern California since the Loma Prieta in 1989.

However, we don't really know when the next big one is going to hit do we?
begin quote from:
http://scedc.caltech.edu/recent/

If you are considering living in California this is how many earthquakes just in the last week we have in California. However, you really don't feel any of them this size except for the biggest ones on this list and only then if you are nearby when they happen.


These constant movements help to "Oil" the faults and keep them moving so we don't have bigger quakes. Bigger quakes are actually caused by when movements get hung up or caught on one rock movement getting caught on another often and not able to move. So, when it releases often all at once suddenly from being hung up it can be devastating to everyone in the state or beyond.