September 9, 2023
"We felt three intense shocks from the earthquake in our building. People ran out into the street in a total panic."
"Some families are sleeping outdoors because they’re afraid to go back inside. It felt like a train rolling through our houses."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
19 comments:
I have usually lived where there's two fault lines, but now I'm on four, and I feel much less seismic activity than usual. That makes me think there's a "big one" in my future.
The ad that blows up in my face right after watching that crazy scene in Morocco -...
House Organ(D) WaPo yelling "Donald Trump.... "
Not like they are obsessed with the man or anything.
As a native Californian, I've always lived with earthquakes and thought of them as fun. If you can catch the street moving, you get extra points for life experiences.
Morocco has a lot of mud brick buildings, especially in the Medina quarters and country's rural interior, and the Medina streets are very narrow and often bordered by shops that create a congested, warren-like network which is difficult to navigate in the best of times. I sent my friend Jamal an email, but have nothing heard from him yet. I'm hoping it is because of the time difference or perhaps an interrupted email network. Jamal is typical of Moroccans who are wonderful people and certainly the most tolerant in the North African countries.
You can tell a country is far away from here when people describe an earthquake as the "Morocco Earthquake". I mean here, we wouldn't even say the "California Earthquake". We'd narrow it down to a city.
any takers >>> aid to Morocco will be faster than Mauii
Climate change.
Crack, I hear you. When I lived in San Bernardino, I once saw an early morning earthquake make an empty parking lot look like waves coming to shore.
Most of the time early morning quakes happened when I was in the shower and it felt like I was surfing.
Not always fun, but always humbled by the displayed power.
While I complain frequently about building codes, especially the inspection regime around them for new construction and residential refurbs, there are some good reasons to have the codes for earthquake resistance, storm wind resistance, and so on.
I was in my office approximately 100 miles from the 5.8 earthquake that struck near Mineral, Virginia, in 2011. That was bad enough. I can’t imagine being near the epicenter of an earthquake an order or magnitude worse. My sympathies to the people of Morocco.
I was travelling through Morocco in 1972 for over a month and a half. I started out in Ibiza, Spain, where I met some hippies who were going to Morocco to buy a brick of hashish to bring back and sell. We travelled by train to Almeria, Spain. From Almeria, we took an overnight ferry to the Spanish port of Melilla, and crossed the Moroccan border to Nador. In a cafe in Nador they bought a brick of hash and I left them (hashish possession in Spain was a death penalty offense back then). I took a bus to Fes, took another bus to Casablanca, then rode the Marrakesh Express train (think Crosby, Stills & Nash) to Marrakesh. In Marrakesh I met a British girl with a van and we went to Essaouira. We spent a week living in a cave with hippies in Esouirra eating mussels we peeled off the rocks of the Moorish ruins at low tide. Then we went to Agadir. When we arrived in Agadir I wondered why there were so many new buildings there. I was told that there was a great earthquake in 1960 that killed more than 12,000 people and destroyed the city. Then we went to Guelmim where we found a camel market and Guelimine beads. From there we went to Tan Tan where there were 400 foot sand dunes. We stayed in a hotel that didn't have running water. There were public baths and for about 25 cents you got two buckets of water to wash and rinse. It was June and getting hot so I hitched a ride with an American guy with a car and went all the way to Andorra with him.
So sad to hear. I didn't know that area was prone to such severe earthquakes.
Morocco appears frequently on 90 Day Fiance, and it seems like a friendly and prosperous place. Even trash TV can bring us closer together.
I also happened to see those mountains featured on a nature show. Their height makes them an island of cold in a hot desert area.
I was in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and it was anything but fun.
'As a native Californian, I've always lived with earthquakes and thought of them as fun. If you can catch the street moving, you get extra points for life experiences.'
I was in a parking lot during the '89 quake having just picked up a pizza to eat while watching the World Series game.
The ground was rolling so much you could see it, and me and a random guy actually held onto each other so we wouldn't fall over.
I did NOT drop the pizza : )
The Crack Emcee said...
As a native Californian, I've always lived with earthquakes and thought of them as fun. If you can catch the street moving, you get extra points for life experiences.
I grew up in LA, so I've been through a few. Once, in high school, I was working in a tropical fish store, and water started sloshing out of the tanks. I missed the big San Fernando Valley quakes, though, by moving to NorCal.
When we had a quake here in Maryland, I was one of the few people who knew what it was right away.
A 6.8 quake. Precisely the same as the 2001 Nisqually quake. Not a lot of fun.
I was in PRC in 1997. In Xian and Kunming (near Vietnam) there was a lot of urban mid-rise construction in progress.
Steel reinforced (uh-huh) concrete load bearing gridwork, 15 stories high. Each external grid square was filled in with unreinforced mortared brick, about half including windows.
To my San Andreas tuned eyes, it was absolutely terrifying. Especially in Kunming, which is obviously quake geology. It made me queasy just to walk the streets.
Quake survival is all about building codes and the culture to pay for them and enforce them.
I remember opening my eyes from sleep to see big wardrobe almost toppling on me during eatthquake 1967
Post a Comment