14 January 2010

random thoughts on two earthquakes...


We had a small temblor up Eureka way. Then Haiti exploded in what Pat Roberts called retribution for sin and sane people called a horrible, prolonged, intense shaking of the earth. All the cement buildings came down immediately. Uncountable lives lost or disrupted.

The northern California quake registered magnitude 6.5. The quake that rocked Port-au-Prince registered one half-step more: 7.0. Humboldt County, with its strict building codes and primarily wooden houses, reported 30 persons injured, 18 made homeless. In Haiti, at least 50,000 dead and badly injured, many thousands more made homeless, no effective building codes of any kind.

We are the lucky ones, indeed.

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