Earthquakes

Living in California comes with certain risks, much like anywhere else I suppose. Lately fires have been plentiful. The dry weather and lots of fuel, in combination with some very sick people who like to play with fire, make for a volatile situation. We have been very fortunate in that the fires have not gotten close enough to us to cause damage. Oh, we have seen them, make no mistake about that. In October of 2003, a huge fire swept through the hills above our house. We have moved since then but have already seen fires in the mountains above our current home. These pictures show the '03 fire and the satellite pictures of the smoke plume. The fires, of course, are bad enough, but the days of thick smoke-filled air afterward are just awful. Believe it or not, but I've actually seen folks out jogging in air so bad that it makes your lungs hurt just sitting still.

After the fires, come the rains and the flooding that takes place where the fires have burned. We are currently in that mode, having had three storms in three weeks.

But while these seasons are predictable, and run their course and finally end, earthquakes are a possibility in any season, weather or time of day. I was reminded of this at about 4 AM today when we got hit with a nice little shaker. I was already awake, pondering whether I wanted to go work outside in the pouring rain, when the rumbling started. The bed shook for a bit and then BANG, a short hard shake, followed by some more rumbling slowly tapering off.  First good quake for this house since it was built. Seems to have survived okay. I was most worried about the concrete tile roof. While this roof provides excellent fire protection, it is very heavy. I need to go outside and slog around in the rain and see if any dislodged. Maybe later.

My kids (no longer little ones at 18 and 19) take the quakes in stride. I remember my daughter being wide eyed at her first one, then smiling and saying, "Make the earth shake again, Daddy." From that day on she referred to them as "earth shakes". It was almost as if it was a ride at Disneyland. On the other hand, during a visit to the northeast (where I grew up), she was quite terrified of the frequent electrical storms.

I have a strange, fatalistic feeling about earthquakes. I mean, with a fire, maybe you could stop it by hosing down your roof, or at the very least loading up your valuables in your car and hightailing it out of there. With an earthquake there just isn't much you can do. It's usually over before you can even get moving to protect yourself. So you just sit there and ride it out and hope for the best.

Very strange.

Comments

[nursemyra]

nice writing....

best of luck in 2008

hope your earth only shakes in a positive way

[Greg]

Thank you.

I was wondering, are earthquakes common in your part of the world?

[nursemyra]

not in australia though I can remember feeling the newcastle earthquake back in the 80s.

as a child in new zealand we all had to practise crouching under our desks at school for 'earthquake training'. they were more common in NZ

[Greg]

Funny, as a child in New York, they would make us practice crouching under our desks in case of a nuclear attack.

I'm sure it would have helped immensely.

[nursemyra]

what's happened to your blog?

[Greg]

It goes dormant from time to time.

I have all these great ideas in the middle of the night, but I don't really want to get up and post for a couple of hours, especially not when I have to get up at 4 AM.

Really, all the talk about "voice recognition software" is useless to me. What I need is "thought recognition software". Then I would have an absolutely fabulous blog with multiple daily posts. Like right now, for instance, I have some good pictures to post and I am done with work for the day, but I really need to go get a ride in on the training rollers. That will be much better for me than spending 90 minutes pecking out a post with my pitifully slow typing skills.

I'm better at quick comments or e-mails than I am with posting. I take too much time pondering what I will say.

And, really, who is listening anyway?

[Louisa Sheedy]

Tile roofs are very hazardous in earthquake-prone areas like California. This was evident in the 1995 Kobe Earthquake in Japan. The majority of the casualties were located in old Japanese style houses with tile roofs. These heavy tile roofs, ironically designed against typhoons, unmercifully collapsed on the people inside. It would be better if you use metal roofs, since hurricanes are not common in California.