Favorite quotes from the earthquake

If you were living in a really deep hole this morning, you may have missed that earthquake we had. That’s a big may as it was one of the biggest ones we’ve had in a lllooonnnggg time at a 5.4. Even though it was a big quake nothing really happened. In all reality, it was a non-disaster. However, like most everything else, local news COMPLETELY over reacted.

Point and case, the home page for the OC Register:

“trains disrupted for a bit” hmmm that sounds like a real pressing problem there. Also a real technical term. How long is a bit? 5 minutes or 5 hours?

“how to cope with the quake” hold it right there. If you cannot cope with 15 seconds of shaking then you need to move to Oklahoma where they don’t get earthquakes. We all done coping now? Ok, moving on.

“Shaken, not overly disturbed” another awesome story right there about how nothing happened.

And of course, share your earthquake stories. There you will see hundreds of people talk about how their saltshaker collections shook. Sort of like the guy I heard on the news today.

Since the quake hit so close to lunch time I chose to take my lunch in front of the TV to see if there was some carnage. Instead I got something like this:

“We have Mr.-hypocondriac-with-nothing-better-to-do-than-call-the-12-o-clock-news on the phone from Chino Hills. Mr. Hypocondriac, could you explain what happened?”

“Yeah, I was working at my desk when the earthquake hit. I had to hold stuff down and sort of ride it out. After the quake I got up to check things, and some books were knocked over and some papers.”

awesome man, thanks for sharing!

Another gem was from the DailyNews:

The Daily News
Article Last Updated: 07/29/2008 11:55:36 AM PDT

An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale originating from Chino Hills hit the region at 11:42 a.m., according to city officials. The tremors lasted 30 seconds.
No major injuries or damage has been reported so far in the city of Los Angeles.
Tremors were felt as Check back for continuous updates.

someone was so excited that they forgot to finish their story.

More from the OC Register:

“at least two people were injured when ceiling tiles fell on them at St. Jude Medical Center.” At least there was a doctor in the house.

” It also prompted Caltrans to replace an expansion joint on a truck overpass on the southbound I-5 Freeway, near Bake Parkway.” This kind of scares me. It prompted them to replace the expansion joint? I drive on that bypass every day, and it tells me that Caltrans knew it had to be replaced but was putting it off. However, when the earthquake came and the expansion joint MAY have failed they chose to replace it. Thanks caltarns. And democrats think we can trust the government to fix things. I drove by this today and the expansion joint CLEARLY had metal and bolts that have been pryed from the concrete. Yeah, they were promped to fix it… I wish they would have just fixed it when it broke instead of waiting until it could have been an even bigger problem. Please people, Northridge, 1994, portion of freeway fell killing police officer. Don’t forget the past.

At a Stater Bros. Market in Fullerton, Janet Brown saw food rattle off of the shelves and children duck behind shopping carts when the quake started. A woman in the check-out line shouted: “Bring out the brandy! We all need a shot!” Lol

And finally, even more proof that it was such a non story: “Just another California earthquake,” Sheri Cassidy said as she ate at a Baja Fresh restaurant in Santa Ana. “It didn’t change my lunch plans.”

The reason why nothing really happened was because of our safety standards for construction. There is a reason so few structures were damaged and so few people were injured, stuff just doesn’t fail in America for a quake this moderate. We are all lucky we live in a place with these standards and that this was such a non-story. I’m glad it is a non-story.

Finally, I leave you with this: