We're fine. No damage hereabouts, just lots of pictures haning crookedly on the walls. It felt worse than it was.
Though several folks asked me "How did you like your first earthquake?" this was not my first. They get earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest pretty often, but Californians seem not to be aware of this. I experienced my first earthquake, the "Spring Break Quake" of 1993, just a few days after I met my husband. This allows us to make all sorts of sappy jokes about how "the earth moved" when we met. Har. Har.
Today in the office we discussed the pros and cons of various natural disasters. What's worse/better? The hurricane you watch approach over a period of days, the tornado that gives you about two minutes' warning or the earthquake that gives no warning at all?
Discuss.
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7 comments:
I've been in a hurricane. I'll take an earthquake over a hurricane. Unless it's bigger than a magnitude 8 and longer than 30 seconds. It's all about the after-carnage.
And I'd take an earthquake or a hurricane over a fire going over my house.
Never been through a tornado.
I would say it all has to do with where you, yours and kin are situated in terms of the zone of most carnage for any kind of disaster.
Presbyterian Gal
(from work)
When I moved to Cali, and my new seminary acquaintances found out I was a Midwesterner, this conversation ensued.
I lived through many, many tornado sightings, though no actual touchdown. At least you get some warning. About 30 minute's worth. (I think meteorology has improved since you left the Midwest.) I'm just saying.
With hurricanes, the media leads me to believe that you have a chance to evacuate, if you get plenty of warning.
You don't get a warning, or a chance to evacuate with earthquakes. I hate 'em.
I found it funny that your CA friends seem to think that the shaking somehow ends at the state line. We had earthquakes where I grew up--there is a fault line that runs through the Ohio Valley.
I've done hurricanes in Florida and tornados in Oklahoma and Arkansas. I don't like either of them, Sam I am.
Never experienced an earthquake or a flood. Had a wildfire come a little too close for comfort.
I'll opt for the tropical storm passing just far enough away to make things muddy and breezy. :)
I've only been through earthquakes. The first was the Sylmar in the early 70s when I was a kid, then the Northridge quake in the 90s. I lived about 80 miles South of the epicenter, but it was still really strong where I was. I hate earthquakes!
My dad's been through all three - tornado, hurricane, and earthquake. He's said he prefers earthquakes. With the hurricanes, there was all of the prep - taping the windows and boarding them up, filling the bathtubs & sinks with water, then the waiting and seeing if and where it was going to hit and then evacuate, then the aftermath. He'd rather have the unexpectedness of the earthquake and the fact that at least the quake itself is over rather quickly in comparison to a raging hurricane.
Having only dealt with tornadoes, I choose them. I've never had one blow my house away though.
I can't imagine the long drawn out-edness of a hurricane and the completely unexpect-edness of an earthquake. Gimme tornadoes any day!
Well, ok, maybe not ANY day, but you get the point. :P
can I skip them all - pretty please!
I'm a California native and I'll take an earthquake any day. I've never actually lived through any other sort of disaster, but earthquake damage is so localized, and generally the buildings and structures are built to withstand most of them. You can't build a building that will stand up against the flooding of a hurricane or the force of a tornado. Plus, all that agonizing ahead of time about something that might not happen - that would be torture. I'll take the earthquake - it's over in a matter of seconds and you spend your adrenaline actually helping people rather than worrying in advance.
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