I think it would be very hard to compare the risk from living near a fault line to living in a tornado zone. Tornadoes come nearly every year and it's pretty ea

I think it would be very hard to compare the risk from living near a fault line to living in a tornado zone. Tornadoes come nearly every year and it's pretty easy to quantify your risk of being in the path of one (and it's generally easy to minimize the risk -- listen for Tornado warnings and move to a shelter (build one if you have to)). But the risk from earthquakes is much harder to quantify since they are so rare, hard to predict except in broad generalities, and the damage suffered is also hard to predict. You can try to reduce your risk by following good earthquake practices, but it's hard to quantify the risk reduction. In my area, the earthquake risk is: “We estimate the probability of having a magnitude 9 earthquake in the next 50 years is about 10 to 14 percent”, but no one can say exactly where the earthquake will strike or what areas will suffer the most damage.