The Halfway House

[Cassandra]

Colleen: Not too bad from what I heard. 5.4 is relatively moderate. It can cause things to fall off of shelves, windows to break, etc., but does not usually cause major damage to buildings in California (with our strict codes).

In a third-world country with unreinforced masonry, the same size quake could do a lot of damage.

The Richter Scale (which measures earthquakes) is exponential, so I've been through quakes that were much larger.

It also makes a big difference how far one is away from the epicenter. For example, my sister's family was very close to the epicenter of the Northridge quake and their home sustained major damage (about $100K). Most of her china and crystal received as wedding gifts were destroyed. My sister and brother-in-law were literally thrown out of their bed, which was fortunate, since the mirrored tower headboard crashed down on the bed seconds later.

My house, about 70 miles from the epicenter, was rockin and rolling big time for over a minute, but the only damage was a crack in the dry wall of my family room.

Earthquakes are very wierd. We all know to have our bottled water, flashlights and battery powered radios to be prepared.

Still, when I see what the hurricanes in your part of the country have done, I'll take earthquakes.