RetiredUSAF - 3-12-2006 at 07:27 PM
I've been amember for awhile now and enjoy reading this site nightly. My wife and I are getting close to retirement and are thinking of either
snowbirding or moving south of the border. We are thinking of an area from Kino Nuevo north along the coast to Papa Fernandez. This would place us
approximately 5 hours from a VA facility (Disabled Vet) and our sons that live on the West coast of U.S. I got my wife (the worrier) to agree on this
area because she has an uneasy feeling about the Pacific side (Tsunami). Any helpful info on this area would be grateful. Thanks in advance.
Salsa - 3-12-2006 at 07:37 PM
It's going to be HOT!!!!!!!!!!!
Don
David K - 3-12-2006 at 07:44 PM
My site (link below) has some photos south of San Felipe (Gonzaga Bay)... Where is the VA that you need to be 5 hours from? San Felipe to US
(Calexico) with border wait could be 3 1/2 hours or more...
Tsunami on the Pacific coast?
Gypsy Jan - 3-12-2006 at 08:24 PM
Hi,
I appreciate your wife's concerns, but in an entire lifetime of living on the western Pacific coast of the Alta and Baja California, the only house
damage that I know of what happens is to the marooons who build below the high mean measurements when there is a storm surge.
Some of the alderc-ckers (kidding, wink with a smile) here have posted about a tsunami that happened fifty plus years ago, I can't find anything about
it.
There was a big earthquake in 1933 in Long Beach. Buildings collapsed, people died under the bricks. No one was drowned.
In 1989, that big earthquake collapsed buildings and bridges in San Francisco. Falling concrete killed people, and, as far as I know, there was no
tsunami.
Pick a place to live that appeals to you, on either side of the Baja, do your homework and buy on higher land than the highest high tide on record.
Web Sites?
RetiredUSAF - 3-12-2006 at 09:38 PM
To all that have responded so far - thanks. I know that it will be HOT, my old bones don't get along with the cold anymore (Idaho). I picked from my
map approx 6 hours south of Tuscon and 5 hours south of San Diego. I did not take into consideration any waits at the border.
where to live...
bajaguy - 3-12-2006 at 09:55 PM
You are going to find that it is a long drive on some "interesting" roads to the VA facilities in San Diego and/or Tucson from San Felipe...or
south...and even longer if you need to get there in a hurry or the weather is bad, not to mention routine visits. My suggestion is that you look at
somewhere between the border and Ensenada/Punta Banda on the Pacific side (1-2 hour drive to San Diego), plenty of places up on the hillside
overlooking the ocean, or Rocky Point/Puerto Penasco (2-3 hour drive to Tucson). I would spend some time in each area and check it out....and make the
drive to the nearest VA just to see how long it takes.
tigerdog - 3-13-2006 at 12:35 AM
I understand your wife's concerns about tsunamis, having lived many years in Hawaii where they have actually happened with some regularity. Check out
this page for info on that (keep in mind it was written before the awful tsunami that hit Asia last year) http://www.pdc.org/iweb/tsunami_history.jsp An interesting bit of ancient history is that around 3 million years ago a big chunk of windward Oahu
fell into the ocean, causing a tsunami something like a mile high that swamped all the other islands. Turns out that was not an isolated occurrence
(that's partly why the older islands are ragged in shape while the younger islands are more rounded), but only worryworts like me are concerned about
it. 
(If it happens again you can kiss coastal California goodby 
)
There was a tsunami that swept down the Pacific coast after the great Alaskan earthquake in 1964. I remember it well, as I had school
friends visiting family in Crescent City CA at the time, and they came back home totally freaked out. Check out http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/alaska/1964/webpages/
Having said all that, I've never heard of any tsunamis in the Sea of Cortez, though I haven't researched it either. Buy something inland, not right on
the ocean, to assuage your wife's fears. San Felipe is a pretty nice place to start... 