Earthquake!!

[Spartana]

OK you don't need to run for your lives...yet ;-)!

Wer had a smallish to moderate earthquake (5.1) with the epicenter about 20 miles from my house. Several hundred aftershocks have followed. No damage to my place but there was some damage near the epicenter that I thought I'd bring up here to think about as they would probably apply to short term (and possible long term) emergency preparedness. Some things that happened:

a couple of dozen homes were "Red Tagged" - meaning they were deemed unfit for habitation or even for enter so the homeowners were not allowed to go inside to get anything - even their car if in garage. Eventually after inspections some people were allowed to go into their houses for a few minutes with an escort to get important papers and some personal effects.
lots of broken natural gas lines and leaks but no fires (fires are often a problem in earthquakes)
lots of broken water pipes as well as a couple of broken water mains that caused flooding
power lines down
phone, cable and internet lines down
block wall fencing fell down and pets got out
rock slides caused roads to be closed and some accidents


anyways that's a short list of some of the things that happened during a smallish earthquake.

[Gardenarian]

Scary! This is the first I heard of it.
Glad you are okay.
I was thinking today that it's been a while since we had any shaking - I get worried that it's building up to the Big One.

[CathyA]

I'm glad you're okay Spartana. I've been hearing about the earthquake and all the aftershocks. Hopefully it's not a sign of bigger things to come.
Be safe!

[Spartana]

Some have speculated that it was a pre-quake before "The Big One" - but they always say that! I just brought it up here since I think earthquakes are one of those things that you have no way of predicting, last only a few seconds, but can do a lot of different types of destruction in a wide area. Have to prepare in a different way then you do for a "know it's coming" thing like a hurricane, tornado, blizzard, etc... Surprised you didn't hear about it Gardenarian as it was on the world news.

[Spartana]

Just heard there was an 8.2 earthquake in Chile. I can't even imagine how strong that is - definitely one of The Big Ones. Haven't heard much else about the damage though.

[CathyA]

OOOOOhh...........that's not a good sign, is it? Places like California are heaven.........until they're hell. Sort of like the hurricane-prone coasts.
Not to scare you Spartana...........just be aware, and have a plan.

Do you have anybody's email address here, so if something big does happen, you can let us know you're okay? If you pm me, I can give you mine, if you don't have anyone's.
Stay safe!

[Spartana]

Thanks for thinking of me Cathy! No rockin' and rollin' here right now but I do know that these things seem to come in swarms. Of course if it's a biggie (the infamous BIG ONE!) and there is major damage, fires, floods, tsunamis, etc... then there isn't much I can do. In an area that is home to close to 30 million people (SoCal) something like an 8.2 earthquake would be unbelievably devastating and difficult to deal with without lots of outside government help. But like most Californians, I'm pretty well set up to deal with it even if my house is flattened and all heck breaks loose for a fairly long while. And I can always walk out to somewhere safe (carrying the Barkinator with me) if need be.

[Tiam]

Oregon has had a number of earthquakes in the last 12 months. Smaller ones. I never feel them, but many feel they are a precursor of a big one.

[happystuff]

I have family out in CA and worry so much every time I hear of an earthquake on the west coast.

[Spartana]

Oregon has had a number of earthquakes in the last 12 months. Smaller ones. I never feel them, but many feel they are a precursor of a big one.We also have lots of little ones everyday but I never feel them either. I think only the seismographs can detect them. Whether they are a precursor to a bigger on or just normal "earth movement" I don't know. This site shows recent earthquake activity in Southern Calif. http://www.scsn.org/commentary/?cat=2

[ApatheticNoMore]

Ok we're just getting very small earthquakes all the time now. STOP FRACKING CALIFORNIA! Ok I don't know if they are fracking here yet, fracking is a horrible idea anyway in terms of water supplies, and the spate of earthquakes could very well fall in the realm of statistical coincidence (but the "ring of fire" may be getting more active). But just way too many small earthquakes. As for whether little earthquakes aer a precursor to "the big one", although prequakes exist, if these little earthquakes are on tiny faults, I'm not sure they even can be a prequake, as those little faults are incapable of generating the Big One (the San Andreas OTOH :)) Hey if the big one hits in a hour though, won't I look dumb :laff:

[creaker]

Just heard there was an 8.2 earthquake in Chile. I can't even imagine how strong that is - definitely one of The Big Ones. Haven't heard much else about the damage though.

The scale, I think is logarithmic - so an 8 earthquake would be a thousand times stronger than a 5.