Earthquakes In Mid-America

God must be mad at Madison and St. Louis. Earthquakes hit there and people are a little shocked. I, however, am not shocked, because I watched the most terrifying National Geographic special ever not too long ago that predicts a cataclysmic earthquake in that region that would flood hundreds of miles and reroute the Mississippi. So, it could get worse up there people. Don't say you haven't been warned.

I lived through a 6.2 magnitude, I think it was, in California back in the day. The epicenter was about five miles away, maybe less, and it was disturbing, to say the least. I was actually underground, working in a building as a janitor, essentially, and had no escape. So, I stood in a door frame, waited for it to pass, and then came the aftershocks. But the mot distressing thing was the reaction of some people. A friend of mine continued to work. He just couldn't fathom the danger or what happened. I had to guide him out of the building. He was completely checked out. Another friend, sat, bug-eyed for about three hours and shook. He could not integrate the experience.

A weird thing: While walking to work that morning, I didn't notice but later realized that it was deathly quite. No animals were singing. No usual sounds. And it was quiet for some time afterward, too, as the aftershocks rolled through.

Another weird thing: When I lived in Michigan, a tornado ripped through our town, skipped our house, but not our neighbors houses. Typical weird stuff, like furniture being pulled through windows. Anyway, the sounds from that tornado and the sound, underground, from the earthquake were exactly the same. Both sounded like a huge herd of horses or a train rumbling toward you. It was the sound of massive, unchecked power and it was terrifying and humbling. All you can do is hope you live and surrender to it, because there is nothing you can do besides try to get to safety. And many people were too overwhelmed to do even that.