Interestingly, I live in a high-risk zone for earthquakes, yet there can easily be a few years between them. However, after living here for decades, it is normal to have earthquakes. As a matter of fact, if we don't have them for a while, I hear people saying 'it's time for another earthquake' or 'this is earthquake weather'. When we have one or a few earthquakes people tend to say 'it's about time' or 'we were overdue for one'. So, yes in a sense, it is normal because of the expectation.
[This, of course, is stated regarding earthquakes that we feel. Technically there are hundreds of tremors a day, almost all of which we do not feel.]
The interesting alert we had was with the tsunami. My house should be fine, since I'm 5 miles from the coast and 300-feet above sea-level, but there would be a lot of damage to homes, commercial structures, and most importantly, transportation corridors, such as highways and freeways. It would be interesting to see a computer model of a 100-foot tsunami hitting my coastal area. There would certainly be damage to the nuclear power plant and two local sewer treatment facilities. All of the local hospitals are a few hundred feet above sea-level and away from the immediate coast-line. So, let's see, no power or sewage, and possible radiation leak . . . hmmmm.
