What would you like to know?

Answer

emergency preparedness

The uncomfortable conclusion for policymakers is that everything on this list is known, costed and proven. What separates outcomes is not knowledge but the willingness to spend money in the decades when nothing is shaking — the same political problem that shapes wildfire preparedness, and the same reason the bill always arrives later and larger.

• Base isolation: bearings between foundation and structure that let the ground move while the building stays comparatively still. Standard for Japanese hospitals and data centres.
• Ductile detailing: reinforcement designed so concrete members bend and absorb energy rather than shearing. Cheap at construction, impossible to retrofit affordably.
• Tuned mass dampers: large counterweights in tall buildings that oppose sway.
• Soft-storey retrofits: bracing the open ground floors — shops, parking — that collapse first and bring everything above down with them.