![]() "There's a lot of water tanks there, things that I see around that are built in the fault zone. "I drive up there and I see all these houses built on stilts and they're in the fault zone," Wilkerson says. Wilkerson has continued concerns, and mentions the Frazier Park area as an example. He says our area has always been quake country, and building requirements reflect that. "But, I don't anticipate any significant changes for Kern County," Fenton added. Fenton said engineers in his department will have access to more details from the USGS analysis. He expects the hazards identified in this latest map will end up affecting California building code revisions in 2016. He says the quake hazard maps come out every six years, and state building codes get updated every three years. ![]() "These maps, or at least a hybrid of it, end up in the California building code," Kern County Engineering Services Interim Director Greg Fenton said. The agency says the goal of the hazard map is to help communities make the best decisions to protect themselves from earthquake damage. The hazard map released last week includes analysis of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, the large quake this year in Chile, and recent quakes in Alaska, Mexico and New Zealand, according to a USGS statement. "Our big new concern, of course, was up around the dam." That's the Lake Isabella dam, where an earthquake fault was fairly recently determined to be active, not inactive. And what does the new data show about the level of quake risk in Kern County? "About the same," Wilkerson told Eyewitness News on Monday. "And all that information feeds into their models, and they're refining their predictions." Wilkerson's with the Bakersfield office of the Bureau of Land Management. "Since then there's been a lot of big earthquakes in California and many small ones," Dr. The previous USGS hazard map came out in 2008, and experts say the new one looks at what's happened with quakes since then. California's included in the 16 states that have a relatively high chance of having a damaging quake. Kern County, and much of California are still in the zone shown most at risk. Geological Survey released the map showing where temblors are most likely to hit and how strong. (KBAK/KBFX) - Federal scientists are out with the latest analysis of earthquake risk, and local experts say it's a good reminder to Kern County that quake preparation is a must.
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