Bay Area and Earthquakes

Only 12% of California home owner carry earthquake insurance. This is because it's very expensive, with huge deductibles. A similarly priced earthquake-only policy costs more than my existing home owners insurance, about $65/month. Even then, deductibles are much higher, making them questionable at best.

Even if you do buy a policy, what happens when 88% of your neighbors don't? They'll be on the hook for their earthquake repairs. About 30% are underwater on their mortgages, and they'll walk away for sure. Another good percentage, like myself, have equity, but with enough damages will also walk. Even those 12% with insurance may not want to pay their deductibles and rebuild if they find themselves living in a New Orleans style ghost town. It could be a big mess.

The Goldilocks Earthquake
The most likely kind of earthquake will shake the house, possibly put some cracks in the walls, and we move on, complete with aftershocks.

The worst type of earthquake will shake the house until it collapses, likely causing heavy injury and possibly fire and other issues. In this case, we hope not to be home, but a 72-hour bag is not going to be much help.

The Goldilocks Earthquake is when the house is badly damaged, but not enough to cause major injuries. In this case, gear is preserved and we want to be outside to avoid aftershocks. That might include camping in the yard, or if the region has really gone to pot, something likely since our house is better suited to an earthquake (post 90's, wood frame, single floor construction, anchored to the foundation on a bedrock hillside), then we might want to leave town. This means "bugging out" to our bug out location farther north.

That brings us to concepts like the Bug Out Bag (BOB), the Get Home bag (GHB), and the vehicle to drive off road past abandoned vehicles, the Bug Out Vehicle (BOV).