Earthquake
36 messages in this thread
All of our Ca. friends,
I hope CNN is over reacting and all of you are well. According to them you
all are well out to sea by now. Keep your heads down or up or whatever you do
when ground actually moves. Real
Thanks for the concern, Real. I just got up a few minutes ago and am
just watching the news now. We didn't feel anything up here in SF,
but it sure looks like a big one for our friends in LA.
Life in California can be beyond interesting. I guess it's time for
me to go down to the basement and do an inventory of our earthquake
preparedness cabinet this week. I don't think I've updated it much
since our last nightmare in 1989.
We're in Northern California, so we're doing just fine (so far). This
is a big state; we share quakes between the north and the south.
Thanks for your thoughts, though.
I live near Santa Barbara, California (in the Santa Ynez Valley)… I
live in the same small town where Michael Jackson lives (whoop de
doo)… which is Los Olivos. I was woken up by it this morning at
4:32am … nothing fell off the shelves and no glass broke here, but
no CompuServe access till now. I was bouncing around though in my
bed and the curtains were making noise (metal hitting the frames).
All is well now, though.
Glad all of you in CA did alright. Frankly, I am happy in Michigan.
We are so devoid of natural disaster that our meteorologists (sp) get
excited by a strong wind.
CNN is not exaggerating. The San Fernando Valley got the worst of it,
although LA got it bad too. I'm 65'ish miles south-east from the
epicenter and got shaken up in the night, although no damage here.
The 1992 Landers/Big Bear double quake hit us much worse down here. I
work near the LA airport and went in, but many of the employees
couldn't get in because of all the freeway damage. My wife's
relatives in the valley got cut up a bit.
Glad to hear you're okay. I know that CNN isn't exaggerating, but I
found it incongruous that after watching CNN all morning, I received
phone calls from people in LA at work on a "normal" Monday. Their
response to my questions, "No, it didn't take me any longer to get to
work today. I did get in late, but only because I was home watching
the news. Everything here is fine, although there are some areas that
were hit pretty bad."
CNN tended to make it seem as if LA was in ruins. You got the
impression that there was devestation everywhere. But then, the
camera will do that, just like it can make 12 cows look like a
stampeding herd.
it was the San Fernando Valley folks who took the hit worst. My
brother-in-law and his family live about 3 miles from the epicenter
and were shaken and stirred. People in LA, Orange County, Ventura
County and beyond got away lightly – relatively speaking. The
devastation is mainly to the road system, where one bridge collapse
can cut off an entire series of valleys.
Things aren't quite as rosy here as our little friends to the
south may think. Sure, the San Fernando valley (maybe 20 miles North
of me) suffered the worst, but I'm still cleaning up the office. I
came in briefly Monday after power was restored, and it looks likes
your typical hate crime, just no spray paint on the walls. Today,
we're back in some form of operation, but it won't be totally OK
until Thursday. A lot of damage in the Santa Monica area – lots of
broken storefronts, residential chimneys have crumbled, brick facades
and walls have collapsed, interiors in shambles, some corner
buildings spilling across the sidewalks and taped off from the
public. Lets not forget the freeway collapses on the Santa Monica
freeway between our office and downtown. As if traffic wasn't bad
enough – this should snarl things for the next 6 months to 2 years.
Kevin – glad to hear you're ok. A footnote… Trevor and I got into
an argument–good natured, of course–on how the Richter scale worked
after Loma Prieta, but we never got to finish it. All the best…
Kevin,
I'm in Burbank and I didn't even realize that it had done much
damage over the hill (aside from the 10 frwy). The local news is
concentrating so much on the big stuff in the valley and the freeways
that the fact that alot of small scale damage has occured over a
wider area has been either been passed over or totally exagerated. I
am just now picking up news of minor damage in other areas. On the
other hand, I've talked to relatives who thought the whole area was
levelled!
I hope you get up and running soon.
David,
Yeah, I'm sort of ticked we don't get any attention over on
this side of the hill. The office is back together except for a
couple of piles. We got new bookcases, which we'll secure to the
walls. My girlfriend just called (5:45 pm Tues.) & says our power is
out again (3rd time). The water is definitely contaminated all the
way to LA. International.
>> The water is definitely contaminated all the way to LA.
International. << Uh…Kevin….Didn't you have that problem _before_
the quake? <g> Murph'
Good shot. I always drink only bottled water, and the shower
is filtered. If I owned the place, it would *all* be filtered.
Sad But True….Every time I fly back to Wisconsin from the Left coast I forget
about those little "Water" differences until I take a shower in the morning and
get "Blasted up against the Wall"…he..he I remember attending one of the
Autodesk CAD Camps in San Jose…That was the year the food actually sucked…a
first and last for Autodesk, and when I checked in to my room we had an
enourmous bathroom with a Tub and a shower and giant signs on the tube telling
us not to use it and signs over the sink saying to turn off the water when
brushing our teeth…then there was the "golden" Shower….He…Hee…You
X-Service Guys know what I'm talking Bout'!
Well I've caused enough trouble for now I'm just glad everyone is allright…Ya
Know I've come very close to moving out to there a couple times now and every
time I start to consider it there's about 3 Major Disasters and I forget about
it again. You guys trying to keep me out or What? <g>
Murph'
sorry to hear about your misfortune. I live down south, as you know,
and got little more than a rude awakening and a fright, but I am on a
6-month contract to a game company next to LAX and I drive in every
day. Their 2-story building seemed to be unscathed, more or less, so
I assumed your area would be OK too.
Nope, a lot of folks have had their lives tragically altered,
and not just because traffic is going to get nastier. I just found
out my dispensing homeopathic pharmacy has had their building
condemned, and lost all their stock. That's one family-owned and
-run business that may not be able to recover. Remember that very
few homes and businesses are covered by earthquake insurance.
>> Nope, a lot of folks have had their lives tragically
altered, and not just because traffic is going to get nastier. <<
I know. LA certainly didn't need _another_ disaster considering its
fragile economy.
>>The water is definitely contaminated all the way to LA.
International.
I hear the water in Santa Monica is ok. If your water comes
from the DWP, then it's bad, but if it comes from another source then
It's supposed to be fine, or so they say. The water in Burbank and
Glendale is supposedly fine also (according to my wife), but I'm
sticking with bottled anyway. Better safe than sorry.
It's a relief to hear from you Kevin. Thanks for the update, and take
care while you're digging yourself out from under the mess.
Well, we're all back at work, but a trifle anxious. I was
awakened by a number of aftershocks this morning, including one 4.4.
The aftershocks were the worst for me, and you've had a worse time down there
than we did in '89. My heart really goes out to everyone there… I've got
some bad premonitions about what this means on the wider-scale than we're
seeing on TV. LA is changing on a fundamental level these days, and QUICKLY.
Stay low,
– G
One of our salespeople lives out in Valencia. He left our
office at 4:10 PM yesterday, got home at 9 PM. Now, normally its a
pretty long commute (he plans to move), but this is ridiculous. They
just closed off Olympic Blvd. near our office – 2 blocks away a
high-rise is collapsing – they have planted charges and expect to
"demo" it today.
Sounds pretty post-apocalpytic to me. Just to think that complete
destruction of society is only about 30 seconds away from any of us
is awfully chilling. I'm amazed that at least part of the Hollywood
sign didn't come down.
Sorry. I wasn't being insensitive. I was just saying that it seemed
so incongruous on Monday to be sitting here in my office all day with
CNN on in the background, turning every once in a while to watch as
more awful news came in, only to have someone call me from work in
the LA area, reporting business as usual. It really brought home the
fact that we all rely on what the camera sees but the camera can be
very selective.
My heart goes out to everyone affected by Monday's quake. My personal
experiences pale in comparison.
>> like it can make 12 cows look like a stampeding herd.
Sounds like another Cattle-Lust tee-shirt to me! <g>
Cattle? Did someone say CATTLE???? <BG>
Chuck (you knew I would jump in here!) Mies
Greg:
Oooo, I like that idea.
David
>>CNN tended to make it seem as if LA was in ruins. You got the
impression that there was devestation everywhere. But then, the
camera will do that, just like it can make 12 cows look like a
stampeding herd.
Exactly. I drove around burbank last night and beyond the
occational boarded up windows, you would never know anything had
happened at all. The "devestation" is really limited to exactly what
you have seen on CNN. However, there are hundreds of homes in the
Northridge area that were damaged enough to require major repairs,
and last I heard, 300 people were still in the hospital with serious
injuries. But for most of us outside the epicenter, it's life as
usual again… except for the fact I get a little nervous everytime I
hear the rumble of a truck drive by or a jet pass overhead.
That's exactly what happened to us in SF a few years ago. The damage
was severe in certain areas, there was death and devastation, and we
still experience reprocussions today, but it was not as extensive as
the national news (or local, for that matter) coverage led viewers to
believe.
While it is obvious that the damage from the latest quake is
significant and tragic in many areas, I just wish the news would put
this stuff in context, and not inflate it to apocalyptic
proprotions. There are people out there who think half of California
was reduced to rubble, for goodness sake!
Sorry for the anti-broadcast news rant, but I've got to vent once in
a while…<g>
It's just all those people in Las Vegas who are waiting to have
beach-front property.
Yeah, but even with beach front property Vegas would still be a no-go for me.
Can't stand the place (no offense to Vegas-ites, just my opinion).
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
John:
The Strip can get to be a bit much. I've been going to Vegas every year for
Comdex since the early 80's. But I've also got two very good friends that
moved there a couple of years ago and they love it. Las Vegas is pretty much
like any other city once you get away from the casinos. And Steve says that
it's one place where you can never get bored.
David
Actually David…call me a pessimist but I bought my land in
Arizona…planning on beach front too! <g> Murph'