Given the serious earthquake dangers in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties (which include, historically, the April 18, 1906 San Andreas Fault and the 1868 Hayward Fault movements), major improvements are needed in our California building code and construction standards. The violent 9.0 2009 quake under the Nazca Subduction Zone in Chile resulted in only about 700 deaths (lighter losses than would likely occur in most other nations) were the result of good earthquake planning. The terrible human losses of a less violent earthquake in Haiti in the same year of 2009 (resulting in over 220,000 deaths) were the result of poorer planning.
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