The Quake!

Well, we're back from our wonderful visit to our first grandson, 11 months old!!!
We managed to spend a little time with his parents but he was the STAR of the trip!!

We were smart enough to be in Eugene Oregon when our coast had its ground rattling. There were a number of stories about it. One friend had some "angels" on his back fence. They stayed there.
Another was driving On Madonna Road where it crossed highway 101. She said the front end of her car kind of bounced a bit and she was a bit unnerved, but no damage.
We got back home about midnight last night, seven hours late! There was a bit of snow in the Siskyous that slowed us. One switch was frozen and they had to get out and change it themselves, by hand. Also the owner of the rail lines runs freight and has the right of way. Amtrak leases their track and so if they get off their schedule, they sometimes have to wait around till a freight train is clear of the track.

We found a few little things on the floor. The only damage was a porcelain salt shaker that belonged to my sister, Irene. It was broken in two pieces which are glue-able. A candle holder and candle fell to the the marble hearth from the mantle. The candle didn't break. A jar of spiced tomato paste fell about 5 feet from the larder to a piece of nylon rug and didn't break!

So we feel pretty good about the soundness of the additions we built.
A few plants fell from a shelf on the back fence to the ground. Only one had to be repotted.

So we got off very easy and we are grateful. But of course I should emphasize that California has been aware of the problem for a long time. The great Quake of San Francisco in 1906 taught us a very important lesson and we have been very careful ever since. Many if not most of the present day buildings are built to withstand fairly strong quakes. Buildings are very carefully monitored so that they will withstand these shakes. The building codes are quite strict and monitored.
The building that collapsed in Paso Robles was an old brick clocktower building that had not been retrofitted to withstand quakes. Two people were killed. While it is of course tragic that it happened, we probably lost more than that on the highways in the same area!
But when we read the paper about 20,000 deaths in Iran, our problem pales to almost insignificance. When I hear about the problems in Florida with earthquakes, the Midwest with tornadoes and the snow in the North and Northeast, I realize how lucky we really are.

I'm sure I speak for all our friends in California when I thank you all for your concern. I got a number of messages asking how we fared. The answer is we fared very well and the damage was minimal! Thank you for thinking about us.
---Chas---
--
******************************************************************
It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles E. Dills 1371 Avalon San Luis Obispo CA 93405
[Mac G4] cdills@charter.net 805-544-1731 http://www.charlies-web.com
No size limit. Eudora 4.0 Netscape Communicator 4.7 Pagemaker 6.5
Photoshop 6.0 Microsoft Word (Mac) 98 System 9.0.4 Sunset Zone 15
I can be forgetful. If I fail to do something I promised, tell me!
******************************************************************

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index