Better safe than sorry

With only the little knowledge of earthquakes I have, it’s easily understandable why John Council would say he’s involved in a neighborhood earthquake preparedness program.

Council, a Heavenerite, lives in southern California where an earthquake could hit at any time. And you probably have heard the old saying, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Or, you can never be too safe.

I’ve been in southern California when an earthquake struck once before. I mentioned in another blog that I had my family in Anaheim , at Disneyland in 1986, when a mild earthquake hit. We were suddenly awakened one morning. We didn’t know what was happening at the time, but it didn’t take us long to get out of the motel in the open.

Everything shook for only a few seconds, but we were “shaken up,” so to speak. We found out later that the epicenter of the quake was a few miles off the coast of San Diego . Not anywhere near where we were, but scary, nonetheless.

One comment Craig had on another of my blogs concerned turning on the television to watch the World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s in 1989. Just minutes before the game started, however, an earthquake hit. The TV showed sights and sounds in San Francisco and the devastation from the Oakland Bay Bridge which had collapsed. Those were some horrible sights.

Cynthia and I have been to Oakland , and she told me about the opening for a class she was teaching. As lead instructor she always has someone from the local office come in to address the class. Among the items she asks them to cover is “emergency procedures”. She was half-listening until the woman said, “In the event of earthquake…”

That was the first time it had crossed her mind that earthquakes were a possibility! The speaker now had her FULL attention. “…you are much safer inside the building, since it is on wheels”.

Actually it was more like rollers and would move and sway with the tremor to minimize or avoid damage. Can you imagine a building being on rollers? Cynthia couldn’t. She says give her a Texas Tornado any day!

Actually anywhere you chose to live seems to have some type of natural disaster. Whether it’s hurricanes along the coast or tornados along Tornado Alley, mudslides, ice storms, floods, we’re all fortunate to have fellow citizen’s who plan, encourage and assist us in being prepared.