Retiring seismologist says you’re more likely to be murdered than die in an earthquake

Maybe our fears over earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest are slightly overblown.

Reflecting on her time as a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, Lucy Jones says that the chances of us being part of a homicide investigation are greater than being killed in an earthquake. At least that’s the case in Southern California.

Related: Earthquake tracker

In a Q&A with the Los Angeles Times, Jones says that earthquakes are a bigger threat to Southern California’s bank accounts and economy than people’s lives. She argues that more people died in an ice storm on the East Coast than the 6.4-magnitude 1994 Northridge quake in the San Fernando Valley area. And more people in Southern California have died from landslides and flooding.

“…you’re far more likely to die on the freeway,” she says in the LA Times. “In fact, you’re far more likely to be murdered than you are to die in an earthquake.”

Somehow that’s comforting news. All we’ve heard about earthquakes in Western Washington is the looming threat of the “big one” thanks to the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Even before the now famous &#8212 perhaps infamous &#8212 New Yorker article was published, there was plenty of concern over the fault line unleashing a devastating earthquake stronger than anyone has seen in recent history.

Of course, after the article &#8212 which claimed everything west of I-5 would be left “unrecognizable” &#8212 went viral, concerns of such an event seemed to rise further. Even FEMA said it could leave the Pacific Northwest “quite a mess.”

Brian Sherrod, with USGS, recently told MyNorthwest that people are still calling about concerns over the “big one” &#8212 more than eight months after the New Yorker article was published. And people haven’t stopped preparing for a massive earthquake.

Just head over to Ocosta, where communities on Washington’s coast agreed to raise taxes to build North America’s first vertical tsunami evacuation shelter. PBS reports the shelter will be open 24 hours a day and can hold up to 2,000 people. The shelter is already built and a ceremony will be held in June, according to PBS.

Ocosta is just one example of the frantic preparation occurring in the region. Elsewhere around the state, communities and local governments continue to push out the message that people need to be ready for the inevitable quake. Ask any seismologist and he or she will probably tell you it’s important to prepare.

Then again, maybe it’s not that surprising &#8212 we’re not that used to death in Washington. For example, over a four-year period in King County (2006-2010), the number of people killed by homicide was just more than 300. During that same period in LA County, there were more than 4,000 homicides.

With all that said, if we’re more likely to be murdered than killed in an earthquake, why do we worry so much about the “big one?”

Jones’ explanation into the rationale of fear might shed some light on the issue. She says it’s the “unpredictability” and “unseen, not-understood dreadedness of the outcome,” that makes us worry. Earthquakes, she says, “trigger all these buttons, and so we’re afraid.”