No More Shaking Please
Good lord I hate earthquakes. Especially ones that are centered a mile from my house. It's not so much the actual quake. Had I known that we were going to have a 5.0 quake today I think I would be just fine, but it's the unknown that comes with it. While it's shaking I wonder how long will it last, will the shaking get stronger? When it's over I wonder if it just means a bigger one is coming. I remember the Big Bear/Landers quakes so vividly. For those who didn't get to experience that was when one quiet Sunday morning about 5 am we had a 7.3 centered in Landers, CA, and almost exactly 3 hours later we had another 6.5 earthquake on a completely different fault. Yeah, that sucked. I was 13, but I still remember that morning pretty clearly.
In any case, this is the 3rd large quake we've had in the area in the last 6 months after being relatively quiet for some time. That along with the November big Shake Out, we really don't have much of an excuse not to be prepared for a bigger quake, or even THE big quake. We are a reactive society, in that we tend not to react until after an even has taken place. Please don't wait in this case. Take this opportunity to make the preparations necessary to make sure you are ready for the "just in case".
I know I probably sound dramatic or something. I blame my father for teaching me to be prepared for this kind of stuff starting around age 2.
Here are some links to some sites that can help you get prepared:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/earthquakes/archive/ready.dtl
http://www.redcross.org/services/prepare/0,1082,0_239_,00.html
http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/fixit/fixit.html