"In My Opinion . . ."
Feb. 28, 2001
Today at 10:54 AM an earthquake hit the Puget Sound area. It registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale, the largest earthquake to hit us since a 7.1 in 1949. Amazingly enough, for all its intensity, this earthquake did nowhere near the damage to life and property equivalent quakes have done in other parts of the country or world. Scary? Hell, yes! I have always worried that my family would be far-flung in a major earthquake, and none of us were together for this one.
The quake hit closest to William. His college sits only 11 miles from the epicenter, but he weathered it well. Bill and Meg both felt the massive swaying of high-rise buildings in different places downtown, but as queasy as it felt, those buildings were meant to sway--that's their earthquake-proof design at work!
My students performed beautifully. They ducked and covered like troopers, and all of them maintained their composure for those bumpy 20 seconds. We were required to stay that way for about 15 minutes, but no one had a problem. I felt very proud of them; for many of the children it was their first earthquake, and that had to be a little bit of a surprise, but for the most part they were just VERY excited when it was all over! The good news is that since the quake was so deep under ground (apparently 30 miles down), there is little chance of aftershock problems, so life is back to normal. Clean-up has begun in those places hit hard, and engineers are checking for structural damage to buildings, roads, and bridges. Whew!