The Big One (in California) might be flooding not an Earthquake if you study History

Here are some facts: The Sacramento River was 20 miles wide in 1862. The Capitol City of Sacramento was 6 to 12 feet under water and the State Capitol had to be moved to San Francisco by Boat along with all it's legislators and governor to San Francisco (which has hills almost like an island so flooding wouldn't happen there).

Men were picked up along the Sacramento River on the STeamboat "Gem" from the tops of Barns and out of trees (where were the women and children?) for example. Did they die or had they already been moved to safety? likely both in many different cases.

If you look at a map and draw out 10 miles in either direction of the Sacramento River from STockton to Redding you need to think about the implications if this happened again (which it has every 150 to 300 years back thousands of years already). So, if weather is anything like it was for thousands of years this will happen again and again every 150 to 300 years ongoing.

Begin partial quote from:

https://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-deadly-1862-california-flood-that.html

One hundred and sixty years ago, the biggest flood in modern history wiped out California: 4,000 dead, one-third of all property destroyed, a quarter of the state’s 800,000 cattle drowned or starved. California went so utterly bankrupt that its governor, Legislature and state employees didn’t draw a paycheck for 18 months. The newly installed telegraph system fizzled, just the tops of its poles visible under feet of water, and roads were impassable. Eggs cost $3 a dozen (that’s $79 adjusted for inflation, if you thought today’s supply chain issues were bad).

The catastrophe began with a snowstorm in the Sierra. In early December 1861, upwards of 15 feet of snow fell in California’s eastern mountains. What followed, modern National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers believe, was a series of atmospheric rivers. For 40 days, they kept coming, bringing warm rain and high winds. All of the fresh Sierra snow melted, turning frozen creeks into raging rivers as the water poured downstream. 

The disaster struck the Sierra towns first. As rivers overflowed their banks, the churning floodwaters devoured everything in sight. Every last bridge in El Dorado County washed away, taking with it ferry boats and mills. Several towns disappeared overnight. Chinese immigrants, who were already banished to living in the worst parts of town, were disproportionately affected. Entire communities drowned in minutes, a fact met with characteristic callousness by white publications. 

"The Folsom Telegraph thinks that those journalists who have centered many of their energies against Chinese immigration ought to be shocked at the superiority of water over their spirit in decreasing the 'Chinese nuisance,'" the paper joked, "for it is not to be doubted that two or three thousand Chinamen have perished in California since the commencement of the present rainy season."