I woke up at 5am because my back is totally thrashed from working 20 hours this weekend. I looked at the clock..
As a Cali Native, you remember this stuff..when it happened and the time. You always remember the time.For this quake it happened at 5:12 am. Earthquakes leave a lasting impression, I have been through enough of them. I wasn't here for THIS one however, but i have read enough about it and the devastation. The fires did almost as much damage than the actual Quake,and killed many of those trapped. The bottom pic was taken from a hot air balloon. The fires lasted for 4 days. The quake was felt from Coos Bay to L.A..
People who have never lived in Cali are fond of saying they couldn't deal with the quakes. I say I would rather live through a quake than a tornado. But thats because I have never been through a tornado. I bet most people that fear quakes have never been through one either. They are kind of like a roller coaster ride, the big ones are anyway. You can't stand up, you get tossed about and it only lasts for a minute or two. The noise of the building shaking and the blinds rattling are deafening. When I owned my parrot, he always alerted me a few seconds prior to the start of a quake by screaming and thrashing about in his cage. Scientists aren't sure why some animals know they are coming before they hit. Then I had a dog that would sleep through the entire thing like my son does.
An excellent link to the Mother of all Quakes is here at the S.F. Museum. Perhaps people from outside Cali think I am strange for posting about this today..but like I said..you never forget the biggies if you lived here for any length of time, and this one 100 years ago today was the biggie.
13 people gave us their .02 cents:
Missouri is suppose to be on a MAJOR fault line.... I think I will look up more info on that...
Anyways, back when I was in fourth grade a seismologist (sp?) predicted a huge earthquake to hit our state and surrounding states that would have basically demolished us all. Needless to say our school actuall bought thousands of body bags for the case.
Years later in high school band we used the body bags as uniform garment bags.
Creepy eh?
LMAO Alice..from body bags to garment bags? long as they were new and unused.. :P
The fault line in Missouri is known as the New Madrid fault line and extends 120 mles southward from the area of Charleston, Missouri, and Cairo, Illinois, through New Madrid and Caruthersville, following Interstate 55 to Blytheville and on down to Marked Tree, Arkansas. It crosses five state lines and cuts across the Mississippi River in three places and the Ohio River in two places. According to the St. Charles Office of Emergency Management, a 7.5 quake could cause upwards of $6 billion dollars damage in Missouri alone, and could be felt in 20 states, and there is a 25% chance of one by 2040. I might want to rethink my thougts of moving to St. Louis someday. :p
Jesus christ B..did you look that shit up or have it in your noggin already?
LIke I said..I would rather experience a quake than a tornado ANYDAY...
Earthquakes scare the crap out of me. I was in So Calif. for the '71, '87 and '94 quakes. '94 did a lot of damage to the house. I have a friend in Florida, who has been through the quakes and he prefers quakes to hurricanes.
I've lived through quakes (SF), tornadoes (Michigan) AND a hurricane (Rita) and even though Loma Prieta (SF '89) scared the living crap out of me and left me with some lasting PTSD damage. I'll take that quake again over the rest anytime. No question.
you rock my world Dusty...
but then again thats how I roll.
all my best,
JQP
AH..the Loma Prieta one..I remember that one too MJ..The LA ones were the worst I lived in San Diego and on one of the faults..the Rose Canyon fault..it was horrible, I thought the house was going to come down around us or slide down the damn hill.
But yes, I will take a quake, you can take that to the bank for moi.
I knew some of it, but had to look up the rest. There's been several articles in recent months in the Post-Dispatch about the possiblity of a quake in the STL area.
We actually had a small one here back in 2004, I believe it was, but there was no damage.
People always freak out about the unknown. I've been through three tornados, three hurricanes, a tropical storm, and marriage.
But no earthquakes. I've always had the opinion that tornados are bad because you can't see them coming until they are upon you. But you can tell when the conditions are right for one though and not put yourself in a situation where you will get hurt. Not so with earthquakes. I'm not talking about little 3.0's thought. I mean for a big one. I would take a hurricane over an earthquake any day of the week, because you can see the hurricane coming a week away. The people who get caught in a hurricane don't prepare ahead of time.
It certainly was a biggie. Great pics BTW.
I remember that like I remember the Anchorage earthquake. That one is known as the Good Friday earthquake. It hit on March 27, 1964 and, according to Space.com, was a magnitude 9.2 ... the most powerful earthquake of the 20th century. No matter, they are all horrific events in history and, I fear, only a glimmer of what is in store for us in the future. Here's hoping we can learn from shit happening now and prepare ourselves for the aftermath. Take er easy Dusty. I won't be around for the next few days but will catch up later.
TG
I've been through both. Tornadoes several times, and I was in an earthquake in 1976.
I can't say which I'd rather be through, it would depend on where I was. A tornado if I was in a city, a quake if I was in low profile territory.
Preferably neither again.
Post a Comment