McMahon: Shakes
Apr 6, 2010, 8:08 PM | Updated: Jun 5, 2012, 3:27 am
Did I ever tell you children about the big Arizona quake of 2010? It was as if heaven was trying to tell us something because it all happened on Easter Sunday afternoon. Buildings swayed, trains derailed and wound up on Central Avenue. Why, the water came right up out up everybody’s pool and filled the Salt River bed.
As years go by, that’s how some old timers will remember Sunday’s earthquake. That’s because we’re not used to them. What we felt in greater Phoenix would have been considered a hiccup in California. They get temblors all the time.
But for us, it’s big news and, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to keep it that way. The ultimate helplessness must be to live in quake country. You can’t really blame anyone for the insecurity when it’s San Andreas’ fault. That’s virtually all of California. And immediately east of us begins tornado alley. And just south of that is hurricane land.
Makes August in Phoenix seem pleasant, doesn’t it? But don’t get too smug. The worst earthquake in the continental U.S. happened in 1812 in, of all places, Missouri! Hey, did you guys feel that?
