Fair point but pretty sure we are talking about Japan and by extension similarly advanced countries/cities (hence the mention of NY and DC). If that was unclear, please allow me to make it clear now. :-)
Sorry, over the last 10 years I have started to lump the US together with Haiti.
But, seriously, if you had a Richter 7-8 in DC or NY then I would get the hell out of the building because it is likely to collapse. But I think that is geologically impossible. Structures in the eastern US are not constructed with earthquakes in mind, especially shoddy private homes.