Learning from the Earthquake (1990)

I remember that earthquake. I was 11, home alone, doing algebra homework on the kitchen table with the sun setting behind me. It started as a vibration that then turned to seem like gravity went sideways in a paint shaker for several minutes and the family dog went crazy. Bookshelves spilled like avalanches onto the floor. Half of the pool dumped itself into the bushes and onto the grass. The first thing I did after convincing the dog to get outside was shut off the gas to the house and that of some of the neighbors, fearing a gas explosion should any pipes have ruptured. The biggest thing I remembered was there were aftershocks all night, and we debated sleeping outside. That was one of the last earthquakes I remember in the Bay Area, the ones since were rather small and infrequent. Subsequently, all of our appliances and furniture, large and small, were bolted into studs in the wall. Big, TV-style computer monitors were held down by industrial Velcro.

More recently, I assembled for my mom a trauma kit with woundseal, quikclot and a tourniquet with a metal windlass; I always have mine in the car, readily accessible.

Gripping stuff. I want to believe I'd have been one of the people helping, but how can I know without having been there?

Side note, it's depressing how weird it is to see an article like this with no ads, no sidebars, no UI at all except for six terse links at the very top. I can't remember the last time I read something online where the bottom of the content was also the bottom of the page.

Everyone in earthquake country -- or indeed anywhere a major disaster could strike -- needs to read this piece.

Lives would be saved.