Earthquakes: Reason #1403 why I'm glad to live in Michigan!

[UrbScotty]

I would hate to go through an earthquake. Sure, the Midwest has a quake or two every few years, but California has one every few hours, it seems like!

[DealsGapRider]

1. I was in Kalamazoo last weekend...

...for my Great Uncle's 80th birthday. I didn't care for it too much. Kalamazoo was kind of run down and not particularly charming. Course, it was raining the whole weekend, so that might have had something to do with it.

Oh, and I don't see how you survive the winters.

[UrbScotty]

4. Have you been to Kentwood or Grand Rapids?

And by the way, how the heck do you survive the blazing heat of the summer?

Well, at least we elect Democrats like Al Gore and Jennifer Granholm here.

[noonwitch]

26. Not always-Reagan carried Michigan and GR is DeVos/VanAndel land

Grand Rapids is a pretty city, though, especially by the river at night when all the bridges are lit up. It looks almost european.

The conservative dutch can be really annoying in their right-wing self-righteousness.

You're the guy who lives by Valleywood, right? Cool, I graduated from EKHS in 1982. My family's house was at 1306 Marwood. If you stand in the tennis courts at Valleywood Middle School and look across the baseball fields (the ones behind St. Mary Magdalen), the gold colored house on the other side was ours.

[newyawker99]

19. Congrats DealsGapRider!! 200 posts

:toast:

[wryter2000]

2. Uh...

You get tornados? I'd much rather deal with earthquakes.

I lived through Loma Prieta and the Oakland Hills fire. I'll take the quakes over the fires any day.

[dflprincess]

5. But we get warnings about tornados

we can hide from them. I've never experienced an earthquake - I'd probably drop dead from fright at the slightes tremor. No warning, no where to run, no where to hide. Yikes!

[UrbScotty]

7. Absolutely!

At least we usually know when it's coming!

[arcane1]

17. just experienced one a few minutes ago! :-)

just a little 3.9 though

[Dookus]

3. yeah...

we have earthquakes.

You have lightning storms, ice storms, tornados, blizzards, boiling muggy heat, and yes, earthquakes.

And you get most of those EVERY year!

[UrbScotty]

6. Tornadoes and lightning storms, etc., are FUN!

You don't get to enjoy that very much, do you?

No! You have to bake in 100-degree heat year-round! Grand Rapids hasn't hit 100 in nearly 15 years!

[Dookus]

9. Earthquakes are fun too!

Really, they are.

100 degree heat? Are you kidding me? I live in Santa Cruz, about 6 blocks from the beach. Average summer temp is 62.7 degrees. Warm days, cool foggy nights. It's heaven.

Average winter temp is 50 degrees.

[AndyTiedye]

10. They Actually Expect You to Drive in the Ice Storms

if you live in the frost belt.

That's far more terrifying than any earthquake!
Not actually the driving itself, it's the other guys driving,
like that pickup truck coming towards you around the curve...
with the bald tires...
drifting and sliding into your lane...

[Lefty48197]

12. We don't have bad drivers in Michigan

the winters have a way of weeding them out.

[Garage Queen]

35. Hey! Michiganders aren't bad drivers.

We're just ... "assertive."

:7

[UrbScotty]

14. Of course, we also have SNOW DAYS!!!!!

The boss (or superintendent of the school district, as the case may be) says, "Forget it, no school/work today."

[ellie]

8. I don't know,

the winters here are horrible (I live near Detroit). Last winter went on FOREVER! I thought it would never end. I am thinking I might like a change. Maybe a hot desert climate would suit me. I would give up the winters and the humidity!

[Lefty48197]

11. The weather in Michigan is GREAT!

Oh sure, we get an occasional ice storm, or those occasional hot muggy days in July, but not this year! The weather this summer was PERFECT. It only hit 90 degrees in the Detroit area about 4 times. Usually the high was a beautiful 82 or so. My furnace even came on a couple of mornings in July! (For you Arizonans, a furnace is a big metal thing that's used to heat homes when it's cold out) That's unheard of around here. San Diego eat your hearts out. Besides, we also get Spring and Autumn, the best seasons ever invented. And the winters ain't so bad either. Well, maybe if you go up north where they measure snowfall in feet instead of inches! But snow builds character you know. Besides decorating the palm trees or cacti for Christmas just doesn't do it for me.

[Ohio Dem]

13. I agree with that.

In Ohio, we don't have to worry about much of anything in the way of natural disasters or animals that can kill you. No hurricanes either. Just the very occasional tornado, and we don't have many of those at all compared to other states. You can't even find many cliffs to fall off.

One thing our states have in common.

Who would have thought it? :evilgrin:

[Lefty48197]

15. Buckeyes and Wolverines finding common ground

Because of those kind words, I promise to never again say anything bad about Ohio. ...until November anyways.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. Wow! You have that many reasons? I have been here for a bit now, and

can only think of three...;)

[ronnykmarshall]

18. LOL!

Sorry, but it's rare that we even FEEL an earthquake.

I remember watching the news after the 1994 quake in LA and this woman was going on and on how she was "going to leave this damn state...." I really wanted to say:

DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT!!!!!

Sorry, earthquakes (big ones) are scary as hell but if you can't deal with the fact that you might have go thru one ..... get the hell out of my state!

[slackmaster]

20. It's been really quiet out here

http://www.scecdc.scec.org/recenteqs/

[SiouxJ]

21. Michael Moore would be proud

the media has people scared to death of everything.

I lived in So. Cal. for 26 years and felt the earth move on a few occasions. It was no big deal. Never had any damage or anything. Like others have said, it's nowhere near as frightening as a tornado. My parents had their house obliterated by a tornado in Connecticut (not exactly tornado alley) and mom always said she'd take earthquakes over tornadoes any day as you can't see them coming. You don't have to drop everything and hide in your cellar because you can't see them coming. Nothing to worry about or mess up your day or plans. Besides, they are so rare compared to things like severe weather, which occurs constantly in most places besides California. And, how many people have been killed in California earthquakes in recent decades since the building codes have been changed to accommodate them? I'd be willing to bet more people die from severe weather - lightning strikes, tornadoes and most definitely floods than earthquakes.

It's like anything, you get used to it. It's fear of the unknown (or unfamiliar) that makes people afraid. And of course the media hypes it up to make people (outside of CA) terrified of them. Oh and you aren't safe just because you're not in CA and you think you have less quakes. There are undiscovered faults all over the country and earthquakes can happen any time, anywhere. I've heard there is a pretty major fault running right under New York City. I'd much rather be in a place that has earthquakes considered in the building codes.

[GOPisEvil]

22. I slept through a 4.1 in an LA highrise hotel...

...a guy on the elevator the next morning asked me if I'd felt it. :shrug:

I'd rather live in CA where the builders of buildings plan for earthquakes rather than in an area where folks think nothing like that could happen. Tornados and floods scare me more than earthquakes, but that's just me. :-)

[SiouxJ]

23. Exactly!

those buildings are on rollers and sway with the quakes. I'd rather be in one of those in a quake than in a sky rise in a state that hasn't considered their possibility. And they are possible EVERYWHERE. Most faults aren't discovered until they let loose with a quake. I think I saw a program on a quake that hit the Mississippi river way back over 100 years ago or something that was pretty major.

One of the things that causes the most injuries and deaths from quakes are bricks. How many homes and buildings are made of brick with no consideration for quakes? In CA they all have been retrofitted to withstand them.

:hi:

[GOPisEvil]

24. Yes, the New Madrid fault in MO...

I believe in the 1800's a big quake caused the Mississippi to flow backwards for a bit. That must have been a mess and a half...

:hi: Oh, by the way, this was no fancy hotel either - this was the hotel Motel 6 bought right by LAX. Yup - a high rise Motel 6. :-)

[pmbryant]

25. Good post, SiouxJ

The vast, vast majority of earthquakes in California are small, do essentially zero damage, and are only felt by people right on top of them.

Even mid-size earthquakes (5.0-6.0), (which occur only every few years at most in a particular region) only do superficial damage thanks to the stringent building codes in California.

The only quakes to fear are the big ones (a la the 1989 Bay Area quake (7.1?), or the 1994 Northridge quake (6.6?), or 1992 Landers/Big Bear quakes (7.4,6.6?) ). Those are very rare. And even then, while they do a lot of damage, relatively few people lose their lives these days.

I lived in the LA area from 1990-1996, during a period in which several medium-to-big quakes hit the area. I vividly remember the first one I felt, and I must admit it was very startling.

It was the Sierra Madre quake in 1991, which was a 5.7 or so (mid-size), but was only 10 miles or so away from where I lived and so I felt it quite strongly. It hit at 7:30 in the morning roughly, and woke me up from a sound sleep, the shaking was so rough. Knocked my desktop fan off a table, my TV off its stand (it survived), and emptied the medicine cabinet all over the bathroom floor, but otherwise no damage except to my psyche. (Some buildings, exclusively older ones I think, closer to the epicenter were superficially damaged, but nothing terribly noteworthy that I recall.) No doubt had building codes been lax, the damage could have been extensive. (I see 6-scale earthquakes do manage to kill a lot of people in poorer countries on occasion.) Fortunately, California is prepared to deal with all but the very largest, and rarest, of earthquakes.

:thumbsup:

--Peter

[cally]

30. You have way more faith in state planning

for earthquakes than I do. California does fine in the relatively small ones. We've had stringent building codes for years. However most homes and buildings that are older than 20 years are not bolted to the foundation. Many older buildings still have architectual features that will fall. Many houses still have chimneys that will collapse and water heaters that will fall. (I know, I lived in a house for 10 years with all these and it was too expensive to upgrade) In the SF Bay Area, most hospitals, major roads, fire departments and even the State Emergency Command centers are located on the major faults. Most schools do not have emergency plans or stored water and very few employers have prepared.

I've lived here almost all my life and I do enjoy the small ones. I've felt many and have never suffered any damage except small cracks in the walls. As someone who has worked on state and local planning for emergencies in the past, I'm terrified of the major earthquake we are expecting in California. I don't think we are prepared. Too many folks have not stored water and basic supplies and emergency services and utility workers will take maybe one to two weeks to reach many homes and businesses.

Still, I plan to live in California the rest of my life. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and fires are too scary.

:hi: Peter

[SiouxJ]

32. True but part of my point was

that other states aren't prepared AT ALL! And they do have faults running under them and can have a major unexpected quake at any time too. At least CA is partially prepared. There's always room for improvemnet and you can't totally prepare for EVERYTHING, but other states don't even think about it.

I love San Diego and I sometimes wish I never left but it is nice and less crowded here in AZ, though we are TOTALLY unprepared for earthquakes here. And given the look of the terrain, I'd say they have happened here quite a bit in the past.

:hi:

[cally]

33. I agree

It's obviously a sensitive issue for me since I worked on emergency preparedness for a short while. All states need to prepare better.

:hi: :)

[pmbryant]

34. The big one

I was mainly referring to the small to medium-size to moderately big earthquakes that happen fairly regularly.

Extremely big earthquakes are a different story entirely! (Thankfully, they are extraordinarily rare.) No doubt you are correct that California is not nearly as well prepared for them as they should be. I do not envy you that job of emergency planning.

Probably the place in the country that I would most scared of earthquakes in, is in the St. Louis/Memphis corridor, thanks to the New Madrid fault. That fault is capable of extremely powerful quakes and it hasn't had a big one in almost 200 years. And that area of the country isn't very earthquake-aware as far as I understand.

:scared:

I would move back to California in a second. I didn't grow up there, only lived there for 6 years, and it's been nearly 7 years since I left, but I am substantially Californian at heart.


:hi: cally


--Peter

[thom1102]

27. more people die from exposure in Michigan during the winter annually

than die from earthquakes on the west coast in a decade. Not to mention tornados, etc. I will take Cali any day!

[5thGenDemocrat]

28. Tornadoes are overrated

Most of them touch down for a mile or so, and often across a farm field. I've lived here in MI my whole life and have seen one and had another one hit in a Saginaw residential neighborhood two miles south of where I live about ten years ago. It knocked down a few trees and blew out some windows and stuff, but didn't destroy any houses or kill/injure anyone.
Now, a tornado such as the one which devastated the Beecher community in Flint in 1953 (killing 114) is rare like a 9.0 earthquake.
Also, Michigan (surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes) has a more moderate winter (you could look it up) than does Ohio, or Wisconsin or Minnesota, et al, because the lakes serve as an moderating influence -- water heats and cools slower than landmass. So our winters are warmer (and snowier) and our summers are cooler.
I've never been to California, though I'd like to see it someday. And I will take Michigan any day!!
John
See my sig line.

[UrbScotty]

31. We have a BLONDE governor!

And at least we aren't recalling her!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

29. You chicken!!! They are great fun and a lot of help moving the fridge

so you can occasionally clean under it.