07/08/19 -- Dead Zone Earthquakes

KANSAS CITY POST

July 8, 2019

CALIFORNIA DEAD ZONE — The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) confirmed this week that a cluster of earthquakes ranging from 3.0 to 7.1 struck the southwestern California Dead Zone centered around what was once Ridgecrest, California.

Representatives from Praxis Heavy Industries confirmed the geological activity and participated in a joint fact-finding expedition to the ruins of Ridgecrest with members of the NEIC on Sunday. The earthquakes, some of the worst reported since the creation of the California Dead Zone on November 24th, 2013.

NEIC spokesperson Leo Collins told the KC Post that, "Without operational observation equipment inside the Dead Zone we're effectively blind to the geological disasters happening beyond its boundary. While there is little infrastructure and even fewer inhabitants to endanger, sites like the California Safe Zone are at high risk from earthquakes due to a lack of early warning systems."

Not so says Li Rong Huang, Praxis Heavy Industries' Chief of Urban Planning and Development for the California Safe Zone. "Older construction methods found throughout the Dead Zone are still susceptible to seismic activity, but what we have started — from the ground up — is a building plan intended to be earthquake-proof. Our prefabricated and autofabricated buildings are designed to withstand the geological instability of the American west and we're working on building 'future-proof' designs for everything America can throw at us."

In addition to the Ridgecrest earthquake, some 160 acres of land in what was once southern California is still on fire as wildfires continue to ravage the southern reaches of the Dead Zone where emergency response is infeasible. The US Census Bureau estimates that some 6,000 people still live within what is considered the California Dead Zone, but that number may be ten to one-hundred times greater than estimated.

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