I’ll never forget my first earthquake. I was living in Bangkok at age 19. I had taken a bath and was just standing up when I felt super dizzy and disoriented. Being from Kansas, I assumed it was my problem. It never occurred to me that the earth beneath my feet was moving!
I have lived in a number of places that experience regular earthquakes, most in Asia, but my first professional position after graduate school was at the University of Utah Government Documents in Salt Lake City. You should see the EPA report on what a major earthquake could do to that town!
When I studied Chinese in Taipei we had short ones about once a month. And each time I thought, ” I hate this place and now I’ll probably die here!” That convinced me permanently not to live in an earthquake zone and I haven’t since. I figure life is stressful enough without having to worry about the stability of the ground beneath my feet. Those that live in earthquake zones with 99% chance of the big one perplex me. Fatalism at its best I guess.
After the recent quakes, the Governor of California said Saturday that “governments must strengthen alert systems and building codes, and residents should make sure they know how to protect themselves during an earthquake.” Good luck with that!
When the entire earth seems out to get me, I am not optimistic…
Adventures of the NEW Old Farts 
I’ve been through three small (I emphasize small) earthquakes – one in Arkansas, two in upstate New York (one of them was the 5.8 one in August of 2011 that hit near Washington DC and cracked the Washington Monument. ) No thank you to anything worse. No thank you at all.
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I was in a big earthquake, 6.9, here where I live in California. There are lots of states with earthquake faults including Missouri, and of course most states have dangerous events including tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding.
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