The California Geological Survey’s has revealed that the Santa Monica fault zone runs through the heart of Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive and the famous shopping district that is home to world-renowned luxury brands like Chanel, Prada, Cartier, Gucci, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue, among others.
“We’re all afraid of earthquakes,” Norbert Wabnig, who runs the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, told the Los Angeles Times. “To know that there’s [a fault line] close to us, that’s even scarier.”
The fault zone reportedly cuts through Los Angeles’s west side, and parallels Santa Monica Boulevard through Century City and Westwood. Segments of it reportedly run into Brentwood, Santa Monica, and the Pacific Palisades.
Beverly Hills is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the nation. A potential earthquake would cause hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in damage, depending on its magnitude.
According to the Times, last year’s draft version of the final fault map showed the Santa Monica fault zone ending on the western edge of Beverly Hills, near the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. However, the new version indicates the fault zone — capable of producing a major magnitude 7 earthquake — extends through Beverly Hills.
The Times notes, “It is possible that the Santa Monica, Hollywood and Raymond faults could rupture nearly simultaneously in the same earthquake.”
In 2014, Breitbart News reported:
Legal and moral questions have risen as to what should be done about 12,000 properties–including landmarks such as the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, the Mondrian and Standard hotels in West Hollywood, three elementary schools, and Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School — that lie in newly-drawn fault lines which were released in January by the California Geological Survey, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
The maps are of the Hollywood fault and the Sierra Madre and Duarte faults in the northern San Gabriel Valley.
The City of Beverly Hills reportedly does not yet have a plan should an earthquake strike the area. However, the Times points that the silver lining in all of this is that the Santa Monica fault line’s slow movement could mean it could be hundreds or thousands of years before another earthquake hits the listed area.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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