California shimmied like a little hula figurine on the dashboard. I have virtually no experience with earthquakes except for that one time I was flat on my bed in a hospital, with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, and we had the strongest earthquake in 60 years. Its a very queer feeling when something as ‘rock solid’ as the ground beneath you suddenly becomes Jell-o. Its like watching the sun set in the north, or seeing water flow uphill…your brain just cannot comprehend it.
I’ll be cruising the usual discussion boards looking at peoples AARs. It is always good to learn at other peoples expense. Still trying to figure out how the California politicians will blame this on Trump…
Moral of the story: It happens. You’re not wasting your time and money by being ready for it. It DOES happen.
We had two here in Michigan in the recent past. One was a 3.4 mag and the other slightly less. The first was about what we get here if and when we get them. The last time Michigan had a 3.4 was in 1947. The first one we had in 2015 was the same strength. No damage. The others that have been reported here was when I was working third shift and I was sleeping days. Never even knew it until I got to work. Another reason to stay the hell out of the biggest insane asylum on earth. You have to be crazy to want to move to Commiefornia and really dumb to stay.
I live in Southern California about 130 miles from the July 4th earthquake epicenter and it got my attention. I would estimate that the quake lasted maybe 10 seconds. Last night’s earthquake was much larger, and that fact was obvious immediately. It produced a rolling motion that lasted up to a minute. When it happened, I was more focused on texting my family members about the event, than I was concerned about being injured. (In the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, on the other hand, one which happened around 4:00 a.m., I sprang to my feet and was out of the bed so quickly that Bruce Lee would have been jealous.)
I told my wife last night that, absent serious damage to the house, we would be just fine if a major temblor hit us, given my extensive preps. We’d still have lights, more food than we could eat for months, more water than we could drink in our lifetime, TV, and radio. (Okay, there is the risk that I might not be able to read Commander Zero’ web site each day, so that would be a bummer.)
For a huge percentage of Southern Californians, however, the threat of earthquakes is such a continuing threat that it is ignored. It is not the “new normal,” it is the “current normal.” Frankly, the fact that we’ve not had a major earthquake in 20 years only exacerbates the complacency.
FEMA urges everyone to have three days of food and water on hand for emergencies. This standard is laughably, and ridiculously low. Yet, so many people don’t even have three days of supplies on hand, so I expect that FEMA is simply urging people to take “baby steps” in the belief that anything is better than nothing.
Three or four years ago, I asked my secretary whether she had stored water for use after an earthquake. She said that she hadn’t. I asked her what she would do for water after an earthquake. She responded, “Do you mean like go to the supermarket?” I replied, “No, I don’t mean like go to the supermarket.” When I began to talk about the earthquake risk and the need for her family to have water on hand due to damaged water mains, I saw the “Thousand Yard Stare” developing in her eyes. I told her that, by doing nothing, she should just plan on standing in line behind National Guard trucks while waiting for her two milk jugs of water each day. I sent her a text last night after the temblor, suggesting that she revisit that issue now.
While I was typing this, a brother called me about the quake last night. He lives near Tampa. Using a health analogy, I told him that hurricanes there were like cancer. Earthquakes here are like heart attacks, in that there is little to no warning for the latter. (Tornadoes where we were both raised are like lacerations, and there is no warning for them, either.)
I asked him about his preps in case of a hurricane. He told me that he would just leave and head north. Of course, he can, given the fact that there are usually a few days’ warning about hurricane strikes. Even though there’s a risk that grocery stores and the like along his evacuation route will be stripped clean, I can tell that he doesn’t see the need to do much of anything about preparing for hurricanes.
I will save other readers from urging me to “leave that state.” I hate the politics, the traffic, and the crowds. Yet, I have family here and until they leave I won’t either. And it doesn’t hurt that the daily temperatures this week have been in the high 70s, and the temperatures at night have hovered around 60. I haven’t used my air conditioning for weeks, and I have used it only a few times this year (which, of course, makes all of that a “survival advantage”). I can’t even remember if it has rained since April.
Like living in Tornado Alley or the Gulf Coast, you make your pact with the Devil and move on–and bear the consequences as they occur.
I was happy to see the link to Terry Del Bene’s article about the SF earthquake. I met him some years ago at a writing workshop & bought his book, Donner Party Cookbook. No, it’s not about cooking people, but practical recipes of the time mixed with history.
We had an 8.0 off the coast of the Big Island in Hawaii about 13 years ago. The electrical grid for the entire state went dark. No traffic lights, no radio stations, nothing. No one knew if a tsunami was on the way or not, so we all headed up the mountain side.
In the end there was no tsunami and power was restored 24 hours later, but there was no way to know that at the time. Very educational.
Commander:
I strongly suspect that if Kalifornia slid into the sea, the Democrat/Socialist alliance would die with it!
So –
A Win-win situation…
Rachel Maddow is on the line for you, Ceejay. She wants to make you the lead interviewee tonight. Are you available and shall I transfer the call?
So, I’m guessing earth science classes weren’t part of your curriculum, and that poli sci was sparsely represented as well.
What were Dean Wormer’s famous words to Flounder?
Tip of my tongue…
AoC, not California. Bernie, not California. Talib, not California. Pelosi, not California (transplant from Maryland). Need I go on? Maybe the left coast can stop sending their trash over California would be fine.
I have an old friend that lives about 6 miles from the epicenter of the quakes. I have been keeping in contact with him to check up and make sure that nothing disastrous has happened to them.
Of course I take every opportunity to loudly suggest that an an extended trip up here to Idaho just might be a really good idea.
We shall see.
And people will get more serious about preparing for emergencies now…..and it’ll last about a week. Then they will return to their normal mode of operation under present day belief of technology and gummymint cure alls and denial. And emergencies will happen again and again and again, they will continue to respond in the same manner of “I didn’t know”….. The knowledge of preparing for abnormal situations has been around since man walked the earth for the first time and was able to put together more than two coherent words. The only cure is not more knowledge or awareness, but the happening of the world shattering (referring to present day world) end of all, the “Big Kahuna”, the one that creates the worldwide economic and societal implosion that takes mankind back near the Stone Age. The age where if you can’t make it and don’t have the knowledge to create it, you’re pretty much hosed…..
BTDT, got the t-shirt.
FWIW:
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2013/04/northridge-earthquake-pt-i.html
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2013/04/northridge-earthquake-pt-ii.html
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2013/05/northridge-earthquake-pt-iii.html
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2013/05/northridge-earthquake-pt-iv.html
Also entitled:
How I Spent The New Extra Week Before The Start Of Third Semester Of Nursing School in 1994.
There are lessons there. I’m not trying to hijack eyeballs from CZ’s website (I’m pretty sure we’re both doing just fine on our respective blogs without that), but if you want some lessons particular to quakes, and some applicable to all disasters, give them a peek.
I only bring them up because they’re germane today, and just sitting there in the catacombs of my blog collecting dust. And they’re free. So if you learn anything, you’re welcome, with my compliments. That’s why I wrote it all down.
TL;DR?
1) No one is coming to help you. YOYO. Plan accordingly.
2) 72 hours? AHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Try 14-30 days, minimum. Yes, really. IMHO, if you’re not ready for 60 days totally self-sustained, you’re selling yourself short.
3) Northridge utilities overview
*Power: Nada. For 11 days. They weren’t even sure they could reboot an entire city from scratch when they flipped the switched, but it worked. That time.
*Water: Boil water orders for 3-0+ days, thousands of breaks in water mains (18″ from sewer mains, btw). 25 years later and L.A. still hasn’t found and fixed them all. (Doubt me? Google “L.A. sinkholes” since 1994-yesterday. The prosecution rests, your Honor.)
*Heat: It was sunny the day after, even in January. If this had been cold, wet winter, like anywhere in 49 other states, or half of even this one, we would have started loosing people to exposure within two-three days.
*Communication: Ha. Pre-cell era. No POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) for a week. No, >50% of people don’t even have landline POTS. And cell towers have far less capacity, and maybe 24-72 hrs battery back-up. Maybe.
*ATMs: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Cash in hand, or do without.
*Retail business: AHAHAHAHAHA. For two weeks. Only when the power came back on.
*Transportation grid: Hundreds of normal overpasses condemned.
The I-5 down to one lane in each direction for a month, and 300 yards of 100-foot-tall overpass gone.
*Gasoline: Did I mention there was no power for 11 days??
You had the gas you had, until it ran out, or you drove 50 miles away to fill a tank, out of the affected area.
So, imagine that was not possible, or a lot farther away than 50 miles.
And remember, hundreds of freeway overpasses were out.
*General destruction: they were still pulling bodies and victims out of rubble two days later, and than was with less than 100 actual rescues or fatalities, and everyone within 200 miles helping out.
Now imagine 1000, or 10,000 victims.
I repeat: YOYO. If you have gloves and a shovel, you’re the only rescue squad you’re going to see for days to weeks.
Also the only fire department.
And police department.
And EMS.
And hospital.
And pharmacy. (How many days of your meds do you have for back-up?)
And restaurant.
And market.
And building contractor.
And garbage collection.
And so on, ad infinitum.
Welcome to the real Day After.
Now tell me what’s in your kit.
Best Wishes.
-A.
Donald Trump IS RESPONSIBLE for the recent quakes – all of the new ‘immigrants’ now in California are tilting the tectonic plates and creating the new stresses on Mother Gaia. Its true – saw it on the internetz !!