Thursday, October 20, 2011

JUST A COUPLE OF EARTHQUAKES

This morning I saw a news story about the Great California ShakeOut, our annual state earthquake preparedness exercise.  It occurred to me that we don't have a preparedness kit like we used to.

This afternoon there was a 4.0 quake in Berkeley - about 30 miles from home.  This evening while at work, there was another, slighter bigger one.  I don't get too rattled by the quakes and I have no fear of "the big one" they have said all my life is going to happen.  I think it is a common attitude, not the safest one, I guess.  We don't have quakes with the regularity of blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes and other weather related events, so we get a bit blase.

I reassured a couple of hotel guest that the building was built under strict California building codes and it is a very safe place.  This quake did make me look around for the spot I would move to if there was a bigger, longer shake.  My bit of preparedness.

3 comments:

smalltownme said...

I haven't felt an earthquake in a while. I have most of the items recommended for a "preparedness kit" but they are scattered everywhere. It would probably be a good idea to consolidate them, just in case.

hokgardner said...

San Antonio had an earthquake yesterday, and I fielded lots of e-mails from family and friends asking if I'd felt it. My response was, "What earthquake?"

My sister lives in LA, and thanks to her job spends a lot of time on construction sites. One day she was at a building site, and everything started shaking. All the burly guys in hardhats and steel-toed ran for the exits, with my sister right behind them. She later told us that she's learned that when the teamsters run, there's a good reason for it.

shrink on the couch said...

Never felt a quake. My sister felt one in south Jersey over the summer - was very freaky. She had never felt one and was hardly expecting one. She said it felt like a huge truck was driving inches from her house.

hokgardner - I heard there was a quake down in Texas somewhere - NPR news people were suggesting it had something to do with all the natural gas fracking. Not the fracking per se but because of all the water they pour into the ground after the procedure.