one study estimated that three-quarters of health care workers live in zones that are expected to experience the most damage; a recent study found structural weaknesses in many hospitals in California, particularly in the southern part of the state.

Several years ago the city of Seattle did a study of how buildings would fare in a severe earthquake, and found that one of the buildings most likely to collapse was... the one containing the 911 dispatch center.

(That building has since been torn down.)