I know there are some earthquake experts lurking around here as well as generally a more logical crowd so I thought I would ask.

I am thinking of moving to the Los Angeles area. The earthquake risk is still in the back of my mind. I do not want to put my spouse and future family at risk.

If I live, say in the westside of LA, what is the risk that I die in an earthquake? What are the risks that a freeway collapses as I am driving on it?

Assume that I do not live in a "dingbat" apartment building, work in a modern office building, take precautions to secure furniture at home, keep a "go bag" of supplies, etc, should I fear dying in an earthquake?

I am not so worried about the doomsday scenarios that people paint about the aftermath, such as looting and such. I lived through a couple of major hurricanes and in the aftermath people were helping each other and we got through it. I am concerned about the actual shaking though.

I look at the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and they lost 185 people with only a population of 360,000.