By Gil Diaz
NewsChannel 3

Desert residents have their own earthquake to worry about.

Experts say the next big one in the US will take place along the San Andreas Fault near the Coachella Valley.

Residents and officials from around the valley were in attendance for a meeting to prepare folks for a catastrophic quake.

Seismic experts say usually a big quake measuring at least 7.8 takes place every 150 years on average.

The area has not had something like that happen in nearly 300 years.

Seismic safety commissioner Lucy Jones spoke at the meeting. She says the San Andreas Fault spans from the Salton Sea all the way to Cape Mendocino.

But she predicts the "big one" with a possible magnitude of at least 8.1 will measure 350 miles starting from the Salton Sea.

Some residents say that's not driving them out of here.

 "There's always something -- hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes," says one retired Rancho Mirage resident. "Earthquakes are nicer because you don't know they're coming and they're over within a couple of minutes.

Meantime, Jones says over 200 scientists are working on a model on what the Southern San Andreas earthquake will be like.

They hope to be done by April and when that happens, they want all of Southern California to participate in an emergency response exercise at the same time.

NewsChannel 3 asked Jones why people keep moving into the Coachella Valley and why do new homes continue to be built with the "big one" looming over us.

She says she'd rather be in a new home than an old one during an earthquake because of the updated building codes.

Also one good thing about the valley, according to her, is we don't have many tall buildings.

So that means during an earthquake, there are less chances of debris and materials crushing you.