“Lots of people I know just figure they’ll be dead,” despite the fact that your chances of surviving the initial quake in an inland metropolis like Portland are very high. So the point of the story is to render the future less apocalyptic and more productive. Imagining the nitty gritty details of the calamities—not always outright tragedies—that will befall us, will help us prepare to assist our neighbors, to endure the resource-starved days, and compel us to arrange and maintain good earthquake kits.

sorry portland!