The economic, political and social aftermath of the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake

On March 10, 1933 a moderate earthquake (6.2 on the Richter scale) hit the city of Long Beach, California. Although not especially strong seismically, the quake did extensive damage to property in Long Beach and surrounding communities, and killed 120 people. The main reason why the Long Beach earthquake was so catastrophic was unreinforced masonry building construction. The quake itself is an interesting story, but the aftermath is even more interesting. This single event inspired passage of the Field Act, a template by which later seismic building regulations were developed; it was the first time that accelerographs were used to measure ground motion, thus playing a key role in the continuing development of earthquake science; and the subsequent reconstruction of the City caused the then stagnant economy to take off rather dramatically, serving as a sort of example of what might be called “Disaster Keynesianism.†The Long Beach earthquake is thus an interesting example of the human role in “natural disasters.â€