A major effort to seismically retrofit hospitals has been repeatedly pushed back in recent years over concerns about costs. A campaign in Los Angeles to create a list of concrete buildings that would be vulnerable to major shaking faltered. An effort to better track high-risk buildings in San Francisco also stalled.
"Any time you don't have an earthquake for a long time, peoples' concerns go elsewhere," said Kate Hutton, a staff seismologist at Caltech.
That's why Hutton and her fellow Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones have worked long hours since Tuesday's Chino Hills earthquake, battling fatigue as they try to turn the temblor into "a teachable moment."
They knew the world's attention would quickly shift from Los Angeles, and the scientists were determined to use the media glare to promote safety awareness.
They had given 100 interviews by noon and were hoping to do more before the cameras moved on to the next story. Hutton had had only four hours' sleep and was losing her voice from doing so many media interviews.
"The attention will certainly go away," Hutton said. "We can only hope to get a little shake once in a while to remind us."
It was far from the Big One, but seismologists and some elected leaders are hoping the 5.4 Chino Hills temblor might serve as a "political" earthquake, ending a losing streak that quake-safety experts have experienced in recent years.
Tuesday's temblor caused little damage, but it was the most sizable quake to hit a metropolitan part of California since the much larger and destructive 1994 Northridge quake.
Quake experts believe the lull in seismic activity in heavily populated areas has hurt their efforts to get stronger quake building standards.
Add to that a general human tendency to have an "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" attitude toward disasters, which leaves residents less prepared for a major temblor.
According to Candysse Miller, executive director of the Insurance Information Network, only about 12% of California homeowners have earthquake insurance, compared with 32% at the time of the Northridge quake.
Since that earthquake -- the most damaging and costly in L.A.'s history -- major overhauls and retrofittings of thousands of buildings and bridges have undeniably made the state much safer, experts say.
But over the last few years, quake-safety advocates have lost several battles in Sacramento.
