THE BIG ONE'S GOING TO BE COSTLY

Structural engineer Charles Kircher conducted a comprehensive study and arrives at some scary conclusions:

Kircher said that unless thousands of buildings are upgraded to meet the newest earthquake standards, as many as 3,400 people could die if a magnitude 7.9 quake struck Northern California. That's more than twice the number of deaths caused by last year's hurricanes Katrina and Rita combined.

There would be $1.5 trillion worth of damage to buildings and property — far more than the $125 billion estimated so far for the two hurricanes — and up to 13,000 people would require hospitalization, his study found.

There's only one thing to do, preemptively blame Bush.