September 13, 2024 • 26 mins
33,000 union members at Boeing begin strike. Seismologist w/ the US Geological Survey Susan Hough joins the show to discuss the 14 earthquakes Southern California has had this year over 4.0 and whether we should be freaking out. As beaches shrink, neighbors and cities in California fight for sand. UN and Britain denounce Israeli attack in Gaza that killed UN workers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty and this is kfive am a six forty
bill handle here on a foody Friday, September thirteenth, on
a shaking Friday. Well aaskill was a shaky Thursday, but
sort of after shake shakes. And that this is why
(00:21):
I get paid what I do, because I am so
good at this making it clear and concise and to
the point. I'm going to be talking about shaking. Coming
up the next hour, Susan Huff seismologist, We're going to
talk about the earthquake that happened yesterday and the after shocks.
Oh also, before we get into the Boeing strike, I
want to quickly remind you about what Amy and Neil
(00:43):
are doing to help the Union Rescue mission. And they
are both repelling twenty five stories down from the roof
of the Universal Hilton September twenty seventh and twenty eighth.
Is that you each of you different days or you
both at the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I think we're both doing Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right, Yeah, Okay, well I think the people can do it. Yeah,
if you raise a thousand dollars or more. I mean,
you don't have to write the check. But if you
raise a thousand dollars or more, you can also repel
down that building. And notice that I wasn't invited to that.
(01:22):
And it's called over the Edge, by the way, the
promotion because I'm assuming everybody assumes I'm already over the
edge and I've reached that point. I don't know anyway.
Their goals to reach two million people. They help the
homeless at the Union Rescue Mission. It's a great event.
So go to just help one dot org. Just help
one dot org and watch these two people on the
(01:44):
Morning Team do their repelling. You have to yell all
the way down. You know that.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I have a feeling I will be Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You have to record that too, I mean yeah, and
we'll play it on the show. That'll be a nice
promo intro segment. Maybe I'm going to dress like a
big fat spider Man. Yeah, that would be great. You
and a body spider Man suit. That would be fantastic.
I love that, yes, stomachman. All right, Boeing, you've got
(02:14):
thirty three thousand union members have started walking off the job.
These are the union members at Boeing, the International Machinist Unions,
and they are they've taken a hike. Now. A couple
of things about Boeing. Very interesting company, enormous influence, I
mean insane influence. It was at one point the only
(02:35):
major heavy aircraft manufacture in the world. Airbus hadn't existed,
Boeing owned it completely. There was McDonald douglas and a
few others, but nothing like Boeing. And they were considered
probably one of the finest manufacturers on the planet. They
were the pride of the United States, help with our
balance of power. And then McDonald douglas bought Boeing and
(02:59):
then it went in the toilet. The being counters came
in and so Boeing has one non union plant, and
you would and this is a company that has been
unionized for a very long time. So contract is up.
They've been negotiating. They have one hundred and fifty thousand employees,
by the way, and they have been negotiating with the union.
(03:21):
The union cut a deal with Boeing. They said, yeah,
and it was a pretty good deal too, twenty five
percent raise over four years. The new plant they're building
none is union instead of non union. And guess what happened?
Union said no, the worker said no, because here's what
(03:44):
happens during the course of a strike negotiations. You've got
management of the union representing the workers, and they go
in and negotiate with the company. And they will negotiate
and either goes on for a long time, either a
strike or goes right. They usually come to terms and
then union management goes back to the workers who have
(04:04):
to vote on the contract. I just can't arbitrarily say
we have a contract. The voters have the workers have
to vote the union members. And what they did is
the union management went to the voters. The union members
said we've got a deal. Okay, let's go to work.
Union by ninety six percent said nope, ain't going to happen.
(04:28):
And now they're back on the negotia at the negotiating table,
they have no deal. And what happens when you don't
have a deal. You're not happy with the working conditions.
I know, I talk about crazy safe, you know, working
eighteen hour days or anything of that, but no benefits,
work hours over time guarantees, pension plans. Those are the
(04:51):
things that are normally negotiated certain plants opening up being
union or non union as in this case, and so
the vote is taken. Actually one percent of the time
when the union hierarchy tells the union members, Okay, we
got a deal, they vote unanimously or almost unanimously to
go forward. Not this time around, they said no, thank you.
(05:12):
And I think it took the union leadership for a
loop and now they're back to square one. Boeing is saying, hey,
we have a deal. What's going on. We're in good faith.
You said yes, and the union membership membership said absolutely not.
And so you're going to see thirty three thousand while
you're seeing thirty three thousand workers union members walking off,
(05:35):
which is going to shut down Boweing just shut it down.
They will not be producing any new jets. And depends
on how long this goes, it's another hit to Boeing.
Boeing is in trouble. Its stock is down sixty percent
year to year. They've had remember the Max crashes, the
Max eight crashes, and they had the door flying off,
(05:57):
and they've had all kinds of problems the MCASSA, the
software system, and what they did was beyond horrific. I
don't even know we've talked about this before. The shortcuts
they've taken so be prepared for that'll be a big
story for a while. Be prepared for big news on that.
(06:17):
And just before we end, just a quick story. Every
time I get on an airplane, I always ask what
kind of aircraft it is. And it used to be
if it wasn't Boeing, I was really uncomfortable. And now
it's the exact opposite. If it was if it's Airbus,
I'd rather be on that plane. And I always look
at the little placard, the registration placard that you have
(06:38):
in the and the doorjam. They have those on the
airplanes and they're like Vin. You know those little tin
Vin placards things, those metal ones that go in the
door jam, and it'll tell you what year the airplane
was built. That's serial number. I mean, it's all right
there and it's VIN number. And if it is a
newer plane, it used to be if you had a
new plane, oh my god, you had the safest pl
(07:00):
the world. Youdn't have to you know, brand new parts everything.
Now I questioned the new plane. If I got on
an airplane the other day to Las Vegas and the
plane was twenty two years old. It was a Bowling
seven thirty seven and I said, okay, I feel pretty good,
and I've been on planes that were brand new, and
I start sweating bullets. Who would have ever thought that's boweling.
(07:21):
Yesterday we had an earthquake which hit us right on
the air. I think it was seven point thirty in
the morning, and Amy was doing her news and boom,
she felt it and started shaking. Now, I happened to
be in Orange County at the time. I'm broadcasting from
Orange County about half the time, and I didn't feel
it at all, but everybody else did. With this. Susan Huff,
(07:44):
a seismologist with the US Geological Survey in Pasadena. Susan,
thank you for joining us. Greatly appreciated by the way. Yeah,
do I call you Susan or your excellency or doctor
Huff or how do you? How are you known?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
You know? Ryan Seacrest once called me doctor Sue. I
thought that was cute. But Susan is flying.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, fair enough. Now let's talk about what happened yesterday.
And it's a normal or earthquake. It wasn't very big
relative to what we've had here. But what we're hearing
is the frequency of the quakes that are four point
zero or higher. That may be problematic. Would you talk
(08:29):
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, there's a lot there to unpack. You know, earthquakes
around California. On a normal here we have about twelve
magnitude four greater earthquakes somewhere in the region. This year,
we've had somewhat more than that. But trying to read
the tea leaves is just it hasn't been a winning
game in seismology. That earthquakes still like popcorn kernels, These
(08:53):
little guys, moderately little guys, and they pop off apparently
on their own time, and nobody been able to find
any meaningful patterns that y'all want to know if the
big one's coming. We just don't have patterns. The one
thing we do have is statistics, and so when earthquakes happen,
we can calculate the odds of aftershocks and the odds
(09:16):
of earthquakes bigger than the one that's just happened.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
But does that translate at all other than this one
was bigger than that one. We haven't had one in
X number of years. The last big big one we
had the nineteen oh six quake in San Francisco, the
north Ridge quake, the one in Alaska, which I think
took out Fairbanks or Anchorage or whatever it was. Literally
the entire waterfront disappeared. Is there any rhyme or reason
(09:43):
or is it truly just popcorn kernels popping?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, so the answer is yes or no. That you
stand back and earthquakes from the San Andreas happened, but
from regularity every few hundred years. The last big one
near us was actually eighteen fifty seven, so that was
a while ago. So in a geological sense, they might
be fairly regular, and we estimate that those odds, and
(10:09):
we use those those numbers to produce hazard maps. The
problem is human time skifts are too short. So you know,
two earthquakes happen one hundred years apart, or one hundred
and fifty years apart. That really in geologic terms, that's close,
But I'm here in terms that just makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yesterday, shake alerts that did occur. With the technology today
we have on our phones the apps, and we're supposed
to get anywhere from what a few seconds to a
minute notice the shake alerts happened after the shaking started.
Would you comment on that?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, so shake alert is really designed to give you
warning when those big earthquakes happen. You know, when there's
an earthquake on the sand Andrea's fault or you know,
something which can cause damage, and then the system captures
the earthquake that started and it has a few seconds
to get the information to people, so you get that
heads up. If you're right on top of a magnitude
(11:10):
four and a half, most of the people who feel
it are going to be too close. There just isn't
going to be time to get the warning out. So
the system isn't really designed to provide meaningful warning for
four and a half and those earthquakes aren't going to
cause damage in California and imagery.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Do you have earthquake insurance for your home? I do not.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
We have spent a fair amount of money doing retrofitting
on the crypt walls. For example, it's an older home.
The chimney was knocked bound by the Wittier Nearrow's earthquake
before we bought it, and so it's replaced with a
modular chimney. So it's a decision for every homeowner, you know,
to sort of weigh the cost benefit and hopefully to
(11:57):
put resources they can into making sure the home is
safe from an earthquake.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Countan, are you aware of what's going to happen to
your credibility if a big quake comes and you are
not covered and we're looking at the rubble that your
house used to be.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So there was one house in the area that I
was not willing to purchase because I wasn't sure it
was it was well built. I'll say that the house
that I live in and the work that we've done
on it, I think I'm comfortable with that risk.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, fair enough. And that's something that I've talked about
and played with and dealt with for many many years now.
When we talk about, you know, and we're sitting on
the San Andreas fault, we hear about that all all
the time. Of course, that's very southern California. And then
these other faults. From what I understand, there are like
dozens and dozens of these faults coming off of the
(12:54):
San Andreas and not even being connected to it.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, so California has lots of and we know about
the San Andreas it's the main plate boundary fault, but
all of California is really a plate boundary zone, and
the San Andreas has this this funky bend in it.
It's that kink and you're trying to fly two plates
past each other with a kink. What that does is
it squeezes the Greater Los Angeles region, and you squeeze
(13:22):
the region and things go up, so that it's pushing
the mountains up. With earthquakes like north Ridge and especially
soul Mar excuse me, in nineteen seventy one, we've got
these other faults that go through the area, mostly east west.
As a consequence of thought, so yeah, the San Andreas
is actually some distance from us in Los Angeles. It's
(13:43):
up near Fort Pjone, and so that's how that helps
us a little bit. The strong is shaking from an
earthquake is going to be we expect, directly along the faults.
So we've got a little bit of distance from the
San Andreas. It is these these faults minifolds through the
through the only area that we definitely worry about.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, Susan huh, thank you greatly, appreciate your time. Well,
thank you, all right, we'll do that again. She knows
her stuff. Although there's a real question, is too earthquake
insurance at her house. We'll have that discussion at some
point when the big one hits. Now, as we talk
about how we live in southern California, a lot of
(14:26):
a lot of us live along the beach. Well, a
lot of Southern California is the beach. It just happens
to be one of the probably I think, one of
the areas in the world that people just look at
and say, not only does it is emblematic of do
(14:46):
I have that word right, emblematic of Southern California, but
this is movie land. The beach is along southern California.
I mean, they're absolutely gorgeous. And you've heard of wars
being fought for water, for territory, sand wars are being fought.
I mean, what do we do when you go to
the beach in during the summer, in the fall southern California.
(15:10):
You go, you have these beautiful beaches, You sit in
the sand. The sand goes up the crack of your
butt so it feels like sandpaper. You can't get it out.
I'm not a big, big beach fan, but a lot
of people are. And here is the problem. Beaches are
disappearing in some places and not in others. And the wars,
(15:35):
and these are interesting wars we're talking about legal wars
and some physical stuff going on are happening. It's among
rich people because they're the only ones that have the
money to fight these fights. But you have cities now
fighting each other. Ocean Side for example, and San Juan
(15:57):
cupastrant Nos, San Juan cupas Stran I think it is.
Oceanside is in one fight. Laguna Beach is another fight
to keep the sands on the beach, and people who
own beachfront property like beachfront property and they want to
keep their beachfront property because they spent millions of dollars
(16:18):
for their homes. Now in California, you may not know this,
but that beach belongs to the state. You can have
a home on the beach waterfront, but the sand itself
nobody owns. Which is why you can go to Malibu
and walk along the beach and look up and you
(16:40):
see houses that belong to I don't know, Dustin Hoffman,
Michael Eisner, Pierce Brosnan, major people would pay twenty thirty
million dollars from their homes and they're not happy with
people romping around their sand. And there have been lawsuits
been these homeowners that have blocked access to the beach,
(17:02):
which is the illegal. There have been homeowners who have
done everything they can to keep people away because well,
if I'm spending twenty five million dollars and I'm on
beach from property, I don't want this riff raft walking
in front of my house. Those lawsuits are still going
on even though the land is owned by the state,
(17:26):
and the latest has to do with sand and people
moving sand in and out. Now. The problem is that
geologically speaking, you can have one beach next to another
beach and one is gaining beachfront, the other one is
losing beachfront because of the way the oceans and the
(17:48):
tides roll along and sand is deposited or taken away,
and therein lies the problem rich people having less beach,
for example, you have other people having more beach, so
the land is worth more. And by the way, it
(18:09):
is Capistrano Beach not San Juan. Capistano Beach next to
Pendleton ocean Side is a case in point. Capistrano Beach
is gaining, ocean Side is losing. And you have a
couple of people who have actually who own homes. They
(18:29):
have gone in with the tractors, you know, the big
buckets and actually move beach from one beach to the other.
Now you have to have a lot of money to
do that. That's a lawsuit going on. It's the sand Wars,
and you're gonna see more and more of those cities
suing each other, neighbor shuing each other. What's the bottom
(18:52):
line the takeaway here? Why in God's name was you
ever want to buy beach front property in southern California?
First of all, to any beach that rich people live on,
Newport Beach, Malibu. And what are you paying twenty five
million dollars for a piece of land that you're gonna
have to put your house on still in twenty years.
And let's not forget about the sand up along the
(19:16):
crack of your butt. That's very important. I don't go
to the beach. Do you go to the beach? Neil?
Sure on occasion? Okay? Amy? Are you a beachgoer?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I love the beach and I almost never go Wow?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
All right, Kno beach all the time? Huh? And and
last one, yeah, beach.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I love the beach, love the beach.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I hate the beach. If you really want beach, you
go to the nearest hardware store and pick up thirty
grit sandpaper and it does exactly the same thing.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You also fight land and mountains and the desert.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay, I think we're done with that right, And a
quick word about what Amy and Neil are doing on
I think is the twenty seventh Right of September, because
it's going over two days twenty seven and twenty eight.
They are repelling down the Universal Hilton in Universal City
and repelling twenty five stories. Can't wait to see that.
(20:23):
And if you would like to repel, you can join.
Matter of fact, you can help across the board for
the charity. It's the Union Rescue Mission and it's helping
the homeless people. And just go to just help one
dot org. Just help one dot org. Donate if you
can come up with one thousand dollars or get a
bunch of people to come up with a thousand dollars,
(20:44):
you get to repel down the outside of that building.
I can see repelling down the inside of the building.
That's called using an elevator.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That'd probably be smarter, Yeah, a lot easier to do,
all right.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I want to get serious for a moment, and this
one is this is a tough one. I've been covering
this for a while, and it's something that I am
particularly engaged in. And that's what's going on in Gaza
and what's happening in Israel, and that has to do
with the Kamas Israeli war. And as you know, I'm
totally biased on this one. So right there, you know
(21:18):
where I come from. I have friends in Israel, I've
been to Israel. I'm obviously of the he break American persuasion.
And here the here the parts that I just don't
understand from all sides. Well, first of all, there's just
been another one, another strike, a deadly strike on a
school turned into a shelter in central Gaza. Israel says
(21:38):
that this compound that was bombed was a command center
for Hamas. Kamas says that's not true at all. It
was simply a shelter and a school, That's what it was,
nothing more, nothing less. And now the condemnation of these
bombings are getting stronger and more often. In this case,
(22:00):
un Britain denounced it completely, saying this is horrific. It
is government of Katar calling it a horrifying massacre. The
Brits are calling this unacceptable violation of international law and
here's the part that I don't understand. The UN workers,
and by the way, most of them are Palestinians who
(22:22):
work for the UN. There nobody has admitted there are
any militants in any of these places have been bombed.
They don't exist. Every school, every shelter, every encampment that
has been attacked by Israel, Israel says there were militants there.
That's why we went Nope, no militants, no command centers, Nope,
(22:45):
no tunnels coming out in bedrooms hospitals. That's just not true.
And I would expect the I would expect Hamas to
say that, but the UN saying that, and then Israel
saying they are command centers. One of two things is happening.
Either Israel is bombing civilians just for the hell of it,
(23:09):
or those are command centers and strongholds of militants who
embed themselves into the civilian population. Okay, what do you
do with that? Who do you believe? Now? Do I
believe Israel is attacking civilians for the hell of attacking civilians? No?
(23:31):
I don't do. I think they are attacking civilians, Yeah,
I do. Their purpose is to root out militants. This
is what Israel says, and it makes sense only because
I mean, can you imagine if it comes out that
they really did bomb a school just to kill the kids,
then they're on the same level of these cockroach terrorists
(23:52):
who bomb schools and well, for example, the ones Ramas
that took twelve hundred Israeli lives and raped and pillaged
innocent civilians. You know that was for the purpose of
killing civilians. Israel bombing Gaza and I mean into the ground,
is it for the purpose of just we want to
(24:13):
take out a civilian at Arab population? You know, twenty
percent of Israel is Arab. There Israeli citizens. I mean,
you think if they wanted to kill Arabs, they start
at home. And you know that it's Israel's a democracy,
which means that those Arab, that Arab population has Arab
(24:34):
legislators in the Kanesse there are Arabs there now are
Arab treated like second class citizens and Israel you bet
you know this. We are all one, lovely people and
we're democracy and we treat everybody the same. That's a croc.
But the point is is Israel committing genocide as is
(24:54):
being reported, and the accusation and Hamas is w the
pr war. And this is the part that I have
a rough time with as people are as Hamas refuses
to come to the table and Israel refuses to come
to the table for all their reasons on each side,
and that is Hamas would rather have Gaza, the entire
(25:20):
of Gaza, be a Rebbel pile, and not just forty thousand,
but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed. As long as
they stay in power, and as long as Israel says
we will not have Hamas stay in power, there is
the war. There's the war. And so as I look
(25:40):
at this and we're going to talk more about this.
Unfortunately for the next several months. It's been going on
eleven months already, come up October seventh, a year that
this has been going on. All right, kf I am
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been
listening to the Bill Handles Show. Catch my show Monday
(26:01):
through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty and this is kfive am a six forty
bill handle here on a foody Friday, September thirteenth, on
a shaking Friday. Well aaskill was a shaky Thursday, but
sort of after shake shakes. And that this is why
(00:21):
I get paid what I do, because I am so
good at this making it clear and concise and to
the point. I'm going to be talking about shaking. Coming
up the next hour, Susan Huff seismologist, We're going to
talk about the earthquake that happened yesterday and the after shocks.
Oh also, before we get into the Boeing strike, I
want to quickly remind you about what Amy and Neil
(00:43):
are doing to help the Union Rescue mission. And they
are both repelling twenty five stories down from the roof
of the Universal Hilton September twenty seventh and twenty eighth.
Is that you each of you different days or you
both at the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I think we're both doing Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right, Yeah, Okay, well I think the people can do it. Yeah,
if you raise a thousand dollars or more. I mean,
you don't have to write the check. But if you
raise a thousand dollars or more, you can also repel
down that building. And notice that I wasn't invited to that.
(01:22):
And it's called over the Edge, by the way, the
promotion because I'm assuming everybody assumes I'm already over the
edge and I've reached that point. I don't know anyway.
Their goals to reach two million people. They help the
homeless at the Union Rescue Mission. It's a great event.
So go to just help one dot org. Just help
one dot org and watch these two people on the
(01:44):
Morning Team do their repelling. You have to yell all
the way down. You know that.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I have a feeling I will be Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You have to record that too, I mean yeah, and
we'll play it on the show. That'll be a nice
promo intro segment. Maybe I'm going to dress like a
big fat spider Man. Yeah, that would be great. You
and a body spider Man suit. That would be fantastic.
I love that, yes, stomachman. All right, Boeing, you've got
(02:14):
thirty three thousand union members have started walking off the job.
These are the union members at Boeing, the International Machinist Unions,
and they are they've taken a hike. Now. A couple
of things about Boeing. Very interesting company, enormous influence, I
mean insane influence. It was at one point the only
(02:35):
major heavy aircraft manufacture in the world. Airbus hadn't existed,
Boeing owned it completely. There was McDonald douglas and a
few others, but nothing like Boeing. And they were considered
probably one of the finest manufacturers on the planet. They
were the pride of the United States, help with our
balance of power. And then McDonald douglas bought Boeing and
(02:59):
then it went in the toilet. The being counters came
in and so Boeing has one non union plant, and
you would and this is a company that has been
unionized for a very long time. So contract is up.
They've been negotiating. They have one hundred and fifty thousand employees,
by the way, and they have been negotiating with the union.
(03:21):
The union cut a deal with Boeing. They said, yeah,
and it was a pretty good deal too, twenty five
percent raise over four years. The new plant they're building
none is union instead of non union. And guess what happened?
Union said no, the worker said no, because here's what
(03:44):
happens during the course of a strike negotiations. You've got
management of the union representing the workers, and they go
in and negotiate with the company. And they will negotiate
and either goes on for a long time, either a
strike or goes right. They usually come to terms and
then union management goes back to the workers who have
(04:04):
to vote on the contract. I just can't arbitrarily say
we have a contract. The voters have the workers have
to vote the union members. And what they did is
the union management went to the voters. The union members
said we've got a deal. Okay, let's go to work.
Union by ninety six percent said nope, ain't going to happen.
(04:28):
And now they're back on the negotia at the negotiating table,
they have no deal. And what happens when you don't
have a deal. You're not happy with the working conditions.
I know, I talk about crazy safe, you know, working
eighteen hour days or anything of that, but no benefits,
work hours over time guarantees, pension plans. Those are the
(04:51):
things that are normally negotiated certain plants opening up being
union or non union as in this case, and so
the vote is taken. Actually one percent of the time
when the union hierarchy tells the union members, Okay, we
got a deal, they vote unanimously or almost unanimously to
go forward. Not this time around, they said no, thank you.
(05:12):
And I think it took the union leadership for a
loop and now they're back to square one. Boeing is saying, hey,
we have a deal. What's going on. We're in good faith.
You said yes, and the union membership membership said absolutely not.
And so you're going to see thirty three thousand while
you're seeing thirty three thousand workers union members walking off,
(05:35):
which is going to shut down Boweing just shut it down.
They will not be producing any new jets. And depends
on how long this goes, it's another hit to Boeing.
Boeing is in trouble. Its stock is down sixty percent
year to year. They've had remember the Max crashes, the
Max eight crashes, and they had the door flying off,
(05:57):
and they've had all kinds of problems the MCASSA, the
software system, and what they did was beyond horrific. I
don't even know we've talked about this before. The shortcuts
they've taken so be prepared for that'll be a big
story for a while. Be prepared for big news on that.
(06:17):
And just before we end, just a quick story. Every
time I get on an airplane, I always ask what
kind of aircraft it is. And it used to be
if it wasn't Boeing, I was really uncomfortable. And now
it's the exact opposite. If it was if it's Airbus,
I'd rather be on that plane. And I always look
at the little placard, the registration placard that you have
(06:38):
in the and the doorjam. They have those on the
airplanes and they're like Vin. You know those little tin
Vin placards things, those metal ones that go in the
door jam, and it'll tell you what year the airplane
was built. That's serial number. I mean, it's all right
there and it's VIN number. And if it is a
newer plane, it used to be if you had a
new plane, oh my god, you had the safest pl
(07:00):
the world. Youdn't have to you know, brand new parts everything.
Now I questioned the new plane. If I got on
an airplane the other day to Las Vegas and the
plane was twenty two years old. It was a Bowling
seven thirty seven and I said, okay, I feel pretty good,
and I've been on planes that were brand new, and
I start sweating bullets. Who would have ever thought that's boweling.
(07:21):
Yesterday we had an earthquake which hit us right on
the air. I think it was seven point thirty in
the morning, and Amy was doing her news and boom,
she felt it and started shaking. Now, I happened to
be in Orange County at the time. I'm broadcasting from
Orange County about half the time, and I didn't feel
it at all, but everybody else did. With this. Susan Huff,
(07:44):
a seismologist with the US Geological Survey in Pasadena. Susan,
thank you for joining us. Greatly appreciated by the way. Yeah,
do I call you Susan or your excellency or doctor
Huff or how do you? How are you known?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
You know? Ryan Seacrest once called me doctor Sue. I
thought that was cute. But Susan is flying.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, fair enough. Now let's talk about what happened yesterday.
And it's a normal or earthquake. It wasn't very big
relative to what we've had here. But what we're hearing
is the frequency of the quakes that are four point
zero or higher. That may be problematic. Would you talk
(08:29):
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, there's a lot there to unpack. You know, earthquakes
around California. On a normal here we have about twelve
magnitude four greater earthquakes somewhere in the region. This year,
we've had somewhat more than that. But trying to read
the tea leaves is just it hasn't been a winning
game in seismology. That earthquakes still like popcorn kernels, These
(08:53):
little guys, moderately little guys, and they pop off apparently
on their own time, and nobody been able to find
any meaningful patterns that y'all want to know if the
big one's coming. We just don't have patterns. The one
thing we do have is statistics, and so when earthquakes happen,
we can calculate the odds of aftershocks and the odds
(09:16):
of earthquakes bigger than the one that's just happened.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
But does that translate at all other than this one
was bigger than that one. We haven't had one in
X number of years. The last big big one we
had the nineteen oh six quake in San Francisco, the
north Ridge quake, the one in Alaska, which I think
took out Fairbanks or Anchorage or whatever it was. Literally
the entire waterfront disappeared. Is there any rhyme or reason
(09:43):
or is it truly just popcorn kernels popping?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, so the answer is yes or no. That you
stand back and earthquakes from the San Andreas happened, but
from regularity every few hundred years. The last big one
near us was actually eighteen fifty seven, so that was
a while ago. So in a geological sense, they might
be fairly regular, and we estimate that those odds, and
(10:09):
we use those those numbers to produce hazard maps. The
problem is human time skifts are too short. So you know,
two earthquakes happen one hundred years apart, or one hundred
and fifty years apart. That really in geologic terms, that's close,
But I'm here in terms that just makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yesterday, shake alerts that did occur. With the technology today
we have on our phones the apps, and we're supposed
to get anywhere from what a few seconds to a
minute notice the shake alerts happened after the shaking started.
Would you comment on that?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, so shake alert is really designed to give you
warning when those big earthquakes happen. You know, when there's
an earthquake on the sand Andrea's fault or you know,
something which can cause damage, and then the system captures
the earthquake that started and it has a few seconds
to get the information to people, so you get that
heads up. If you're right on top of a magnitude
(11:10):
four and a half, most of the people who feel
it are going to be too close. There just isn't
going to be time to get the warning out. So
the system isn't really designed to provide meaningful warning for
four and a half and those earthquakes aren't going to
cause damage in California and imagery.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Do you have earthquake insurance for your home? I do not.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
We have spent a fair amount of money doing retrofitting
on the crypt walls. For example, it's an older home.
The chimney was knocked bound by the Wittier Nearrow's earthquake
before we bought it, and so it's replaced with a
modular chimney. So it's a decision for every homeowner, you know,
to sort of weigh the cost benefit and hopefully to
(11:57):
put resources they can into making sure the home is
safe from an earthquake.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Countan, are you aware of what's going to happen to
your credibility if a big quake comes and you are
not covered and we're looking at the rubble that your
house used to be.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So there was one house in the area that I
was not willing to purchase because I wasn't sure it
was it was well built. I'll say that the house
that I live in and the work that we've done
on it, I think I'm comfortable with that risk.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, fair enough. And that's something that I've talked about
and played with and dealt with for many many years now.
When we talk about, you know, and we're sitting on
the San Andreas fault, we hear about that all all
the time. Of course, that's very southern California. And then
these other faults. From what I understand, there are like
dozens and dozens of these faults coming off of the
(12:54):
San Andreas and not even being connected to it.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, so California has lots of and we know about
the San Andreas it's the main plate boundary fault, but
all of California is really a plate boundary zone, and
the San Andreas has this this funky bend in it.
It's that kink and you're trying to fly two plates
past each other with a kink. What that does is
it squeezes the Greater Los Angeles region, and you squeeze
(13:22):
the region and things go up, so that it's pushing
the mountains up. With earthquakes like north Ridge and especially
soul Mar excuse me, in nineteen seventy one, we've got
these other faults that go through the area, mostly east west.
As a consequence of thought, so yeah, the San Andreas
is actually some distance from us in Los Angeles. It's
(13:43):
up near Fort Pjone, and so that's how that helps
us a little bit. The strong is shaking from an
earthquake is going to be we expect, directly along the faults.
So we've got a little bit of distance from the
San Andreas. It is these these faults minifolds through the
through the only area that we definitely worry about.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, Susan huh, thank you greatly, appreciate your time. Well,
thank you, all right, we'll do that again. She knows
her stuff. Although there's a real question, is too earthquake
insurance at her house. We'll have that discussion at some
point when the big one hits. Now, as we talk
about how we live in southern California, a lot of
(14:26):
a lot of us live along the beach. Well, a
lot of Southern California is the beach. It just happens
to be one of the probably I think, one of
the areas in the world that people just look at
and say, not only does it is emblematic of do
(14:46):
I have that word right, emblematic of Southern California, but
this is movie land. The beach is along southern California.
I mean, they're absolutely gorgeous. And you've heard of wars
being fought for water, for territory, sand wars are being fought.
I mean, what do we do when you go to
the beach in during the summer, in the fall southern California.
(15:10):
You go, you have these beautiful beaches, You sit in
the sand. The sand goes up the crack of your
butt so it feels like sandpaper. You can't get it out.
I'm not a big, big beach fan, but a lot
of people are. And here is the problem. Beaches are
disappearing in some places and not in others. And the wars,
(15:35):
and these are interesting wars we're talking about legal wars
and some physical stuff going on are happening. It's among
rich people because they're the only ones that have the
money to fight these fights. But you have cities now
fighting each other. Ocean Side for example, and San Juan
(15:57):
cupastrant Nos, San Juan cupas Stran I think it is.
Oceanside is in one fight. Laguna Beach is another fight
to keep the sands on the beach, and people who
own beachfront property like beachfront property and they want to
keep their beachfront property because they spent millions of dollars
(16:18):
for their homes. Now in California, you may not know this,
but that beach belongs to the state. You can have
a home on the beach waterfront, but the sand itself
nobody owns. Which is why you can go to Malibu
and walk along the beach and look up and you
(16:40):
see houses that belong to I don't know, Dustin Hoffman,
Michael Eisner, Pierce Brosnan, major people would pay twenty thirty
million dollars from their homes and they're not happy with
people romping around their sand. And there have been lawsuits
been these homeowners that have blocked access to the beach,
(17:02):
which is the illegal. There have been homeowners who have
done everything they can to keep people away because well,
if I'm spending twenty five million dollars and I'm on
beach from property, I don't want this riff raft walking
in front of my house. Those lawsuits are still going
on even though the land is owned by the state,
(17:26):
and the latest has to do with sand and people
moving sand in and out. Now. The problem is that
geologically speaking, you can have one beach next to another
beach and one is gaining beachfront, the other one is
losing beachfront because of the way the oceans and the
(17:48):
tides roll along and sand is deposited or taken away,
and therein lies the problem rich people having less beach,
for example, you have other people having more beach, so
the land is worth more. And by the way, it
(18:09):
is Capistrano Beach not San Juan. Capistano Beach next to
Pendleton ocean Side is a case in point. Capistrano Beach
is gaining, ocean Side is losing. And you have a
couple of people who have actually who own homes. They
(18:29):
have gone in with the tractors, you know, the big
buckets and actually move beach from one beach to the other.
Now you have to have a lot of money to
do that. That's a lawsuit going on. It's the sand Wars,
and you're gonna see more and more of those cities
suing each other, neighbor shuing each other. What's the bottom
(18:52):
line the takeaway here? Why in God's name was you
ever want to buy beach front property in southern California?
First of all, to any beach that rich people live on,
Newport Beach, Malibu. And what are you paying twenty five
million dollars for a piece of land that you're gonna
have to put your house on still in twenty years.
And let's not forget about the sand up along the
(19:16):
crack of your butt. That's very important. I don't go
to the beach. Do you go to the beach? Neil?
Sure on occasion? Okay? Amy? Are you a beachgoer?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I love the beach and I almost never go Wow?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
All right, Kno beach all the time? Huh? And and
last one, yeah, beach.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I love the beach, love the beach.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I hate the beach. If you really want beach, you
go to the nearest hardware store and pick up thirty
grit sandpaper and it does exactly the same thing.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You also fight land and mountains and the desert.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay, I think we're done with that right, And a
quick word about what Amy and Neil are doing on
I think is the twenty seventh Right of September, because
it's going over two days twenty seven and twenty eight.
They are repelling down the Universal Hilton in Universal City
and repelling twenty five stories. Can't wait to see that.
(20:23):
And if you would like to repel, you can join.
Matter of fact, you can help across the board for
the charity. It's the Union Rescue Mission and it's helping
the homeless people. And just go to just help one
dot org. Just help one dot org. Donate if you
can come up with one thousand dollars or get a
bunch of people to come up with a thousand dollars,
(20:44):
you get to repel down the outside of that building.
I can see repelling down the inside of the building.
That's called using an elevator.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That'd probably be smarter, Yeah, a lot easier to do,
all right.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I want to get serious for a moment, and this
one is this is a tough one. I've been covering
this for a while, and it's something that I am
particularly engaged in. And that's what's going on in Gaza
and what's happening in Israel, and that has to do
with the Kamas Israeli war. And as you know, I'm
totally biased on this one. So right there, you know
(21:18):
where I come from. I have friends in Israel, I've
been to Israel. I'm obviously of the he break American persuasion.
And here the here the parts that I just don't
understand from all sides. Well, first of all, there's just
been another one, another strike, a deadly strike on a
school turned into a shelter in central Gaza. Israel says
(21:38):
that this compound that was bombed was a command center
for Hamas. Kamas says that's not true at all. It
was simply a shelter and a school, That's what it was,
nothing more, nothing less. And now the condemnation of these
bombings are getting stronger and more often. In this case,
(22:00):
un Britain denounced it completely, saying this is horrific. It
is government of Katar calling it a horrifying massacre. The
Brits are calling this unacceptable violation of international law and
here's the part that I don't understand. The UN workers,
and by the way, most of them are Palestinians who
(22:22):
work for the UN. There nobody has admitted there are
any militants in any of these places have been bombed.
They don't exist. Every school, every shelter, every encampment that
has been attacked by Israel, Israel says there were militants there.
That's why we went Nope, no militants, no command centers, Nope,
(22:45):
no tunnels coming out in bedrooms hospitals. That's just not true.
And I would expect the I would expect Hamas to
say that, but the UN saying that, and then Israel
saying they are command centers. One of two things is happening.
Either Israel is bombing civilians just for the hell of it,
(23:09):
or those are command centers and strongholds of militants who
embed themselves into the civilian population. Okay, what do you
do with that? Who do you believe? Now? Do I
believe Israel is attacking civilians for the hell of attacking civilians? No?
(23:31):
I don't do. I think they are attacking civilians, Yeah,
I do. Their purpose is to root out militants. This
is what Israel says, and it makes sense only because
I mean, can you imagine if it comes out that
they really did bomb a school just to kill the kids,
then they're on the same level of these cockroach terrorists
(23:52):
who bomb schools and well, for example, the ones Ramas
that took twelve hundred Israeli lives and raped and pillaged
innocent civilians. You know that was for the purpose of
killing civilians. Israel bombing Gaza and I mean into the ground,
is it for the purpose of just we want to
(24:13):
take out a civilian at Arab population? You know, twenty
percent of Israel is Arab. There Israeli citizens. I mean,
you think if they wanted to kill Arabs, they start
at home. And you know that it's Israel's a democracy,
which means that those Arab, that Arab population has Arab
(24:34):
legislators in the Kanesse there are Arabs there now are
Arab treated like second class citizens and Israel you bet
you know this. We are all one, lovely people and
we're democracy and we treat everybody the same. That's a croc.
But the point is is Israel committing genocide as is
(24:54):
being reported, and the accusation and Hamas is w the
pr war. And this is the part that I have
a rough time with as people are as Hamas refuses
to come to the table and Israel refuses to come
to the table for all their reasons on each side,
and that is Hamas would rather have Gaza, the entire
(25:20):
of Gaza, be a Rebbel pile, and not just forty thousand,
but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed. As long as
they stay in power, and as long as Israel says
we will not have Hamas stay in power, there is
the war. There's the war. And so as I look
(25:40):
at this and we're going to talk more about this.
Unfortunately for the next several months. It's been going on
eleven months already, come up October seventh, a year that
this has been going on. All right, kf I am
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been
listening to the Bill Handles Show. Catch my show Monday
(26:01):
through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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