RENO, Nev. (AP) — A new report raising the likelihood of a destructive earthquake striking Salt Lake City in the next half century underscores the urgency to retrofit more than 30,000 older brick homes and other unreinforced buildings at high risk of collapsing.
It's also getting attention in neighboring Nevada where a significant quake is overdue along the Sierra. Nevada officials are anxious to see if Utah succeeds in a first-in-the-nation attempt to secure federal disaster funds for private homeowners to aid in such efforts.
The Working Group on Utah Earthquake Probabilities, in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, report projects a 43 percent probability that a quake of at least magnitude-6.75 will strike in Salt Lake along the Wasatch front within the next 50 years. That's twice more likely than previously believed.