No,
But Thank You for thinking about me ;-)

You know.... I don't care what everyone on this forum says about you (when you're not here), I Love You anyways ;-)

Oh wait.... I think that was supposed to stay a secret... never mind.... nobody said anything ;-)

{{gwi:270679}}

Jon those kids are more impressive [cute] even than your smok'n compost piles!

I'm wondering if any others on this forum have been affected by the tsunami?

Good looks must be from the maternal side. ;-)

I already looked up Grants Pass, long ways for the coast. Dotty is on Vancouver Island but on the east side so I wouldn't think she would be affected.

The video from Japan is heartbreaking.

Lloyd

Years ago we lived on Vancouver Island and I've felt 4 earthquakes, two different types, ranging from 2.8 to 4.5. Freaky stuff and I can't imagine an 8.9. Earthquakes are a really scary way for all these deaths around the world to happen.

Jon, I bet you walk down the street with those grandchildren and there's no doubt in anybody's mind whose they are. I hope someday to have some of them that look just like DH, too.

You know what? That is. That is a pretty cute couple of kids.

The tsunamis were pretty much of a non-event :-) Thank goodness. They did do some evacuations of our beachside communities here in WA but it was more of a routine than a real emergency measure. There was some larger than normal wave action for a couple of hours but nothing overly dramatic or damaging. There was even an alert issued for interior waters like Puget Sound, which I live on but other than some windtossed whitecaps, nothing.

Living on the west coast is always a held-breath as far as earthquakes are concerned. I've experienced a bunch in my lifetime here and even mild ones can be very disturbing. But since they cannot predict them with any degree of certainty and you can't do much about them when they do happen, I figure it's best not to think about it too much. Could drive you nuts!!

Is it just me or does it seem like big ones are occurring with more frequency? Or maybe they are just better publicized and visually documented than when I was younger

No,I live in the midlands.
Great looking kids.
Bet they are loads of fun.
Mine are 16 & 20, are always gone some where.
I want Gran kids.

..
I was 11 when I experienced my first big quake, 7.1, so my perspective has been colored by the excitement and the escape of a sheltered 11 year old who gets to skip school and bicycle through all the debris that an 11 year old might have.

I went through the Northridge quake, 6.9. I was about a mile from the epicenter and about a half a mile from that apartment building where so many people died. I remember traveling through the sub urban landscape with sirens in the distance and smoke on the horizon while smelling rotten eggs and finally figuring out that what was really bothering me was that there were no windows left square.

The New Zealand quakes are on another level than I've experienced let alone this 8.9 followed by a tsunami in Japan. Be very very worried about the survivors over there on the far side of the Pacific.

The Loma Prieta quake in the Frisco area in the Eighties came about a year after one of similar scale in Japan. There's been quake activity in the north and south of Calley Forn Ya but not in my area in between.

One can always say there will be an earthquake tomorrow of some measure somewhere in the world but I'm starting to itch.

No tornados or hurricanes expected.

Ca la vie.
..

Here is a link that might be useful: California Earthquake Activity

The Christchurch earthquakes have pretty much "munted" the place, according to many locals.
It's a horrible mess, at least a decade to get back to ok.
My brother's got water on now, but sewerage is a big ?
Quite a few Japanese language students were killed; the poor Japanese urban search and rescue crew were on the plane home when the Japanese quake hit.
Christchurch had 5 minutes of international attention, Japan's nuclear meltdown makes their situation much worse and I'm hoping it's not as bad as it looks.

I'd heard that the recent quake in Japan was 900 times stronger than the Loma Prieta quake.

Japan's strong building codes save thousands of lives, no doubt about it. This is my counter argument to all who say there should be less government "meddling" in our lives. Safety regulations are not in place to hamper the economy, but to avoid catastrophic injuries.

Here is a link that might be useful: strict building codes save lives

Re: "less government meddling".....the building codes are generally from local and state government.... as opposed to 'experts from on high' at fed level.

One thing that comes to my mind, as I watch the situation in Japan get even more severe .... they have used their best minds to "tame" nuclear power to generate electricity. And they surely have taken the most stringent efforts to keep it safe .... but even at that, the tsunami and earthquake overwhelmed their best "fail safe" efforts.
BTW ... hope you all have water/food/meds to last for a week or so, in case of a similar event here.

Which makes me think of the "fail safe" drum beat one hears about how we are taming nature and creating new and stronger food plants. Yeah, sure....

My city straddles a major faultline and has been expecting 'the big one' for ages.
Everyone was astonished to watch Christchurch, supposedly not at risk, get toasted instead.
If there's been anything good out of this experience, it's been seeing people finally getting serious and organising their earthquake kits.
Where I live, a decent tsunami would be pretty much inescapable, so I'm very glad that at least NZ is nuclear free.
Building reactors on the Ring of Fire strikes me as a tad... irresponsible!
Pardon me, that turned into a bit of a rant. Things are a bit intense at the moment!