Living in Earthquake Country

People back home - or even Americans living outside California - often ask me if I'm not scared living in area with such frequent seismic activity. I can honestly admit that I am terrified of earthquakes - especially because I work in downtown LA on the 31st floor of a skyscraper. The icing on the cake is that there is a fault line that runs right underneath downtown LA. In late July of 2008, just before lunch time, the leaves of my potted plant on my desk started to move suspiciously. Next thing I knew, the ground under my chair was shaking. I know it was only seconds but it felt like forever. I sit nowhere near a window but looked through my coworker's office outside and thought I could see the ground. He told me stand in the doorway. I was determined not to cry - not to show weakness - but there came the tears. Soon after, the shaking stopped. The elevators were out of order for quite some time. So were the landline phones. And even cell phone service was unrealiable. People started to gather around the TV.

Apparently, it was a 5.5 magnitude earthquake with it's epicenter only a few miles from my office building (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/ci14383980/). In comparison, Haiti's earthquake in January of this year was a 7.0 and Chile's last weekend was a 8.8 magnitude. I was told that the buildings in downtown LA were built to withstand a quake of more than 8.0. Which isn't much of a consolation when you can feel the building swaying back and forth. What makes these buildings 'earthquake save' is that they are built on so-called rollers, which means that the building is supposed to move with the quake. Whereas in poor countries like Haiti, buildings are just made of plain concrete and simply crumble - causing the widespread devastation we could witness in the media. The economic state of a country matters during times of crisis and natural disasters. Building codes matter. Structure matters. These strict building codes that are enforced for skyscrapers are not mandatory for regular residences. Instead houses around LA are mainly made of wood and plaster. That's why you can often hear the TV run in your neighbor's apartment next door. Or you can hear a couple fight in the building across the way. Annoying? For sure! But necessary. That's is also the reason why homes in California burn to the ground in record speed. Whenever there is a fire, the house is gone faster then fire trucks can come. When you take a hike through the Santa Monica Mountains behind Malibu, you can often see the remnants of wildfires in the form of a fireplace - the only thing left standing after a fire. Why? Because it's the only part of the house made of concrete. But if there were a strong earthquake, that fireplace would crumble like a pie crust.

So, why am I still here? It's hard to believe but it earthquakes are not on the minds of Californians on a day-to-day basis. They can't be. We wouldn't be here. It's a kind of survival mode I guess. You can ask people in Florida why they return to their homes after every hurricane. It's their home. And they love it any other time of the year. I once met a guy whose family rebuilt their house twice after it was destroyed by a twister in North Carolina. I thought they were crazy. And people in hurricane or twister country think we here in California are crazy - because earthquakes come unannounced. In their opinion, they at least have time to pack up a few things and get out of town or into a shelter. Twisters and hurricanes can be tracked. We say, twisters and hurricanes are a certainty every year. Significant earthquakes may not happen for years.

It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced an earthquake what it is like. There are two kinds - those that slowly roll and those that jolt quickly. Can't say one is more pleasant than the other. I had my first one about a week after arriving in the US in the early morning hours. The windows were rattling. I was convinced I was gonna die. But it would have been unlikely being only three floors up. I've experienced many little earthquakes since. Several 3-pointers, a four-pointer here and there and the 5.5 mentioned earlier. The funny thing is that you cannot really feel them when you are moving. There was one while I was driving that I totally missed. Or during some of them I was walking around either at home or outside and suddenly get really dizzy for no reason. Little earthquakes will do that to me.

Yes, I'm scared. Yes, I'm afraid I will die. Is it a reason to move? After the 5.5, I was already packing my bags in my head. But after watching the locals go on with their daily routines only minutes after the quake and the news disappearing from the media radar after only a day, it made me wonder if I was overreacting. The likelihood of dying on the freeway is much higher. Earthquakes really don't influence daily lives here in Los Angeles. But when they happen, you can suddenly think of a million reasons why you want to live. And all the small stuff you were dwelling on just minutes earlier, suddenly doesn't matter anymore.