Today near-disaster struck the Puget Sound region of Washington as an Earthquake shook itself into the minds of news crews across the Northwest. The near-7.0 temblor's epicenter was nearest the city (and state capitol) of Olympia. Damage there was nearly nothing but thousands on capitol hill couldn't attend work due to the near-disaster experience.

Closer to home (well, actually at home) today the event nearly took its toll on the locals. Nearly the entire student body of PLU stood outside after the quake and gathered near emergency response stations. Everyone that tried frantically to use their cell phone to call some loved one surely caught up in the near tragedy was denied a connection because every other person with a cell phone was trying to do the same thing.

The clock neared noon and students, faculty and staff alike were allowed back into buildings to continue their school or work day as normal. The local and national news hogged hours of precious air time with stories of toppled gumball machines and cracked sidewalks. I hesitate to think what the headlines would read were the quake nearer the Earth's surface or on a fault near Seattle itself. This geology student nearing his degree would like to think of this Earthquake as a slap in our poorly prepared faces. Nearly everything was left standing in Seattle after this 6.8 quake centered 40 miles from seattle and 30 miles beneath the surface of the Earth and everyone in any position to do so patted themselves on the back for their fantastic planning.

Anyway, near and dear to my heart today were two items that I nearly lost to today's event. In my room the damage was incredibly light after the severe quake. One Ikea paper lamp appeared to dance from my desktop and land helplessly on the floor, wedged between the wall and my desk. It was trapped down there for hours and was so well hidden that I didn't even notice it until late tonight. The other near fatal fall nearly occurred from my dresser. A framed picture of Sarah and I on our 18-monthiversary teetered dangerously above the thickly carpeted floor, thumbing its proverbial nose at the Earth below that earlier tried to claim it.

In all seriousness, we got lucky. I'm thankful that there was relatively little (despite news' reports) damage and injury caused by this Earthquake but, and I hate to say it, this was nothing! We here in the Northwest are still in for it as natural disasters go and I can only hope that today's quake can lay fresh in people's minds for years to come. Because, baby, that wasn't nearly the Big One.

Just wanted to put a note up to tell you that we're doing just fine up here. Neither my house, Sarah's house, nor the school were damaged. You can reach me by email (freitaka@plu.edu) but please let's stay off the phones for now.

Man, that sure gets the ol' heart pumping.

Comments (1) | To Top

8/4/2005 @ 9:38pm

Can you please send me some pictures to me please

by Rachel frankes