Fears of the "Big One"

From the Daily Mail: "Big One fears erupt as San Andreas fault reaches highest stress level in 1,000 years." From the lede:

    Fears of the 'Big One' - an earthquake so big it devastates all of California - have risen to new heights after a disturbing discovery under America's most dangerous fault line.

    Researchers from the US and Switzerland revealed that the San Andreas Fault has reached its highest levels of stress in 1,000 years - adding that it has been more than 160 years since the giant crack in the Earth's crust had a major release of energy.

    The San Andreas is an 800-mile-long fault line which runs under most of California, passing by Los Angeles in the south and San Francisco in the north and connecting to several other major faults, most notably the San Jacinto Fault near Los Angeles. 

The City of Los Angeles has a pretty good preparedness guide available in PDF here. The California Earthquake Authority also has a website with preparedness advice. And one of the better post-disaster novels I've read is The Walk by Lee Goldberg (Amazon link) which follows Marty Slack, a TV network executive, as he survives "the Big One" and treks across Los Angeles from a film shoot in downtown Los Angeles, where he was when the quake struck, to his home in the San Fernando Valley. It's not long (190 pages) and makes a good read IMHO.