California Government Code

§ 8876.1

GOV § 8876.1 Effective Sep 27, 1996Div. 1 · Title 2 · Ch. 12.3

Statute text

The Legislature hereby finds and declares the following:

(a)This state is located along a major tectonic plate boundary that is part of the Circum-Pacific seismic belt, and it is inevitable that earthquakes will continue to occur along the state’s numerous faults causing extensive damage to property and potentially extensive loss of life and injury. In the last decade, this state and its residents have endured a number of moderate earthquakes resulting in injuries, loss of life, and in excess of thirty billion dollars ($30,000,000,000) in property damage. Projected losses in future earthquakes could exceed one hundred fifty billion dollars ($150,000,000,000) as was the case for the recent Kobe earthquake in Japan.

(b)Moderate, potentially damaging earthquakes occur on the average of every couple of years somewhere in this state, and another great earthquake in southern California can be expected within the next 20 to 30 years. However, recent increased seismic activity in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles Basin, coupled with new estimates of long-term seismic patterns, suggest that the seismicity in this state has been anomalously low in the recent past, and we may be returning to a normal period of more frequent large earthquakes. Also, a damaging earthquake near San Diego cannot be ruled out.

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Legislative history

Repealed and added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 966, Sec. 2. Effective September 27, 1996.