Everthing Comes in Threes - Ready for #3?

If FEMA goes three for three in its predictions — if the Big One rattles San Francisco — will we be ready?

In early 2001 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed what it believed were the three most likely disasters to face the United States in coming years. One was a terrorist attack on New York City. The second was a hurricane-spawned flood of New Orleans.

Kind of makes you want to know what the third one is, doesn't it? The third is a major earthquake in San Francisco.

The first two have come to pass in under five years. And in both cases, the post-mortems have had two main elements: How could this have been prevented, and could it have been handled better once it occurred?