Calif. quake scientists detail impact of 'Big One'

NOTE FROM RYAN: I found this article rather disturbing having already been through the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. This predicted "Big One" sounds about 10 times more damaging!

Calif. quake scientists detail impact of 'Big One' - Yahoo! News: "The 'Big One,' as earthquake scientists imagine it in a detailed, first-of-its-kind script, unzips California's mighty San Andreas Fault north of the Mexican border. In less than two minutes, Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs are shaking like a bowl of jelly.

The jolt from the 7.8-magnitude temblor lasts for three minutes — 15 times longer than the disastrous 1994 Northridge quake.

Water and sewer pipes crack. Power fails. Part of major highways break. Some high-rise steel frame buildings and older concrete and brick structures collapse.

Hospitals are swamped with 50,000 injured as all of Southern California reels from a blow on par with the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina: $200 billion in damage to the economy, and 1,800 dead."