I would tell her this:

Earthquakes can happen anywhere. The largest recorded earthquake in the U.S. was in St. Louis in the 19th century. There is also a large earthquake fault lying directly under Manhattan.

If you're going to be in an earthquake (and you can be in one anywhere), the BEST place to be is Tokyo, San Francisco or Los Angeles. The reason for this is that there are very stringent construction codes in place in those cities (and others, of course) that specifically anticipate strong earthquakes. Compare the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti -- The Chile earthquake was an order of magnitude stronger than in Haiti. However, in Chili the damage was minimal specifically because the country has earthquake codes in place. These construction codes work.