We lived in California for about the first 9 years of our marriage, 4 years in the LA basin (Redondo Beach) and 5 years in San Diego.
We were sometimes reminded that we weren't "natives," and yes, some people told her she was overreacting by having an Earthquake kit; Perhaps this was a result of us not being "natives."
Back East we tell amusing stories about the two relatively intense - intense enough to be scary but not intense enough to cause major damage - earthquakes we experienced. (The 1992 Landers quake happened when were in bed, nekkid.) The next year, we escaped to New Jersey, but it wasn't about the Earthquakes so much as the opportunity and the reasonable cost of living.
We do have very nasty hurricanes here from time to time.
I don't remember what the first quake we experienced was called; it wasn't that big but did break some dishes and a the glass cover of a light fixture crashed to the floor.
I was a little more concerned about Landers, particularly because I had solutions of phosgene in the lab in plastic coated glass bottles. They were OK though. We had a few cracks in the wall at home - we were renters then - but no major damage.
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