There's a 62 percent chance a major earthquake will rock the San Francisco Bay Area by 2032, but only 17 percent of the area's residents are prepared.

That's prompted a frustrated local Red Cross chapter to shake things up.

The San Francisco Bay Area of the Red Cross, has handed out empty water bottles emblazoned with: "Try living on this for three days." They've tooled around the Bay Area with rolling billboards revealing what San Francisco buildings would look like after a major quake and they've posted faux housing ads on craigslist.com for quake-damaged flats "available immediately."

Now they've gone and put a 60-foot crack in Union Square revealing earthquake-crushed cars in the parking garage below.

The crack isn't real -- this time.

A lengthy vinyl adhesive spread on the square is the canvas for trompe l'oeil-like artwork creating the optical illusion of a quake crack above mangled cars.

It's the Supercrack.

The quake preparedness campaign with a "What-Do-We-Have-To-Do To-Get-Your-Attention" theme is designed to be shocking if that's what it takes get the other 83 percent of residents in the quake-prone region prepared for what's inevitable.

Geologists say a magnitude 6.7 earthquake along the Hayward Fault in the East Bay could destroy as many as 400,000 homes, injure 63,000 people and kill 3,400 -- in 15 seconds.

Causing little damage a 4.2 magnitude earthquake centered east of Oakland shook the Bay Area early on July 20.

In addition to the shock treatment, the Red Cross' "Bay Area Prepare" program includes a three-pronged approach to preparedness.

Published: August 27, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.