Today's Earthquake

I was sitting at my desk paying some bills at about 11:40 a.m. today when I heard the house creak, then it started to gently shake. I figured it was probably just a little 3 second shaker.

But then the house lurched…as if falling down a stair step. The shaking intensified and the house lurched again. I decided to stand under a doorway. Then the shaking calmed into a roll. It felt like our house was a ship sailing on the ocean. Next I felt a little dizzy and it was over.

Mozart stood in his studio doorway, outside…and we talked back and forth while it was shaking. I started walking outside, and he said…"no…stay there under the doorway." After it was over he came trotting inside and turned on the television. The news people were still in recovery…and they didn’t know much. They asked anyone who felt the quake to call in. They had people calling in from San Diego to Las Vegas. Finally we were informed the quake was a 5.4 and the epicenter was 15 to 20 miles from our home.

Meanwhile my son, who was up at summer school, had to vacate the classroom, so the school could be checked for damage. But it was almost time to go home anyway…so they released the kids after they stood 15 minutes in the field. When I drove up to get him, I didn’t see him anywhere, so I tried to call him with my cell phone. My phone wouldn’t work! But then suddenly my phone rang. When I answered, no one was on the other end. “Hello?” I said. But I only heard complete silence.

The L.A. Times reports we had an 800% call spike…soaring beyond predictions for emergencies. Verizon Wireless said they were 40% beyond the peak that they plan for in major disasters.

Actually this was not serious emergency or disaster. Yet our cell phone coveage was blocked over a wide area. It makes you wonder what might happen in a true disaster. Some land lines were out also.

But actually it was a fun earthquake. What I mean is…no one was injured and I’m sure it gave our summer tourists the ride of their life…much better than Disneyland!

In a unique way, earthquakes bring us all together. Everyone felt it, rich and poor, movie star and homeless person, and the neighbors. We all went through it together.

Experts keep telling us that a big one is coming in the next 30 years. I hope the epicenter to that one is somewhere in the ocean.

With earthquakes…economic problems…gas prices…it seems we live in an uncertain world. Today I pulled an old paper back book out of the bookshelf, “The Hiding Place”. It's about the experiences of Corrie Ten Boom, who also lived in uncertain times...times much harder than ours. Corrie and her family hid Jews in their home during Germany’s occupation of Holland. She and her sister were eventually taken away to the “camps”. Her unwavering faith and courage always encourages and inspires me.