When it comes to the next 'Big One,' the question isn't "if" but "when."
In a CBS 47 Eyewitness News special report, meteorologist Justin Sacher shows us one man who says he has that answer.
The most recent strong earthquake in our area hit in Coalinga on May 3rd 1983, a day eyewitness Mercedes Combs will never forget.
"I was working. It was a normal day. We started off at six. I can't tell you the time it happened but when it happened, you felt it. You just fell. The land under your feet was gone. And you're trying to run away from it but you can't because the earth is moving," said Combs.
Everyone survived but damage was everywhere. Downtown was nearly destroyed except for the famous clock tower. It was rocked, its hands frozen at the time of the quake,
The RC Baker memorial museum was built to tell the story of how what lay under the Southern Pacific railroad's 'Coaling Station A' put Coalinga on the map.
"We first had coal here, then the oil. We had sulfur baths, we had Whiskey Row with 20 saloons and women of the evening," said Stephanie McHaney from the museum.
But now the museum now also tells Coalinga's second history, this one beginning with the earthquake that nearly wiped it from the map.
The 6.7 earthquake came from a fault beneath the city no one at the time even knew existed.
Says McHaney, "The brick buildings were gone, they had all tumbled down. People were running all over the place trying to figure out what was happening, making sure people were out. The fire department was down here."
Dr. John Wakabayashi is a geologist at Fresno State. He says the Coalinga earthquake has a recurrence interval of about 700 years.
"You are building up strength as one side is moving along another but one side is locked and then 'pow' it goes and you start building it up again and then you have another earthquake and the time between earthquakes is the recurrence interval," says geologist Dr. John Wakabayashi.
A six to 700 year interval is not the sort of prediction that will keep the next one from being a surprise.
"With more instrumentation there is hope of course that there will be some sort of signals that will be predictable. 2319 and that they clearly tie to an earthquake that occurs later. But so far there hasn't been any reliable precursor, if you will," says Wakabayashi.
Not entirely so says David Nabhan. The retired California teacher is author of a book getting lots of buzz right now: "Earthquake Prediction: Answers in Plain Sight".
Nabhan predicts earthquakes by looking for dates and times when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon align.
For more on this story, watch the attached video.
In a CBS 47 Eyewitness News special report, meteorologist Justin Sacher shows us one man who says he has that answer.
The most recent strong earthquake in our area hit in Coalinga on May 3rd 1983, a day eyewitness Mercedes Combs will never forget.
"I was working. It was a normal day. We started off at six. I can't tell you the time it happened but when it happened, you felt it. You just fell. The land under your feet was gone. And you're trying to run away from it but you can't because the earth is moving," said Combs.
Everyone survived but damage was everywhere. Downtown was nearly destroyed except for the famous clock tower. It was rocked, its hands frozen at the time of the quake,
The RC Baker memorial museum was built to tell the story of how what lay under the Southern Pacific railroad's 'Coaling Station A' put Coalinga on the map.
"We first had coal here, then the oil. We had sulfur baths, we had Whiskey Row with 20 saloons and women of the evening," said Stephanie McHaney from the museum.
But now the museum now also tells Coalinga's second history, this one beginning with the earthquake that nearly wiped it from the map.
The 6.7 earthquake came from a fault beneath the city no one at the time even knew existed.
Says McHaney, "The brick buildings were gone, they had all tumbled down. People were running all over the place trying to figure out what was happening, making sure people were out. The fire department was down here."
Dr. John Wakabayashi is a geologist at Fresno State. He says the Coalinga earthquake has a recurrence interval of about 700 years.
"You are building up strength as one side is moving along another but one side is locked and then 'pow' it goes and you start building it up again and then you have another earthquake and the time between earthquakes is the recurrence interval," says geologist Dr. John Wakabayashi.
A six to 700 year interval is not the sort of prediction that will keep the next one from being a surprise.
"With more instrumentation there is hope of course that there will be some sort of signals that will be predictable. 2319 and that they clearly tie to an earthquake that occurs later. But so far there hasn't been any reliable precursor, if you will," says Wakabayashi.
Not entirely so says David Nabhan. The retired California teacher is author of a book getting lots of buzz right now: "Earthquake Prediction: Answers in Plain Sight".
Nabhan predicts earthquakes by looking for dates and times when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon align.
For more on this story, watch the attached video.