I was supposed to play golf with a friend Wednesday afternoon. I canceled. I think it’s the first time ever I’ve been the one to back out of a golf outing. It’s now about 1:30 AM Thursday morning.
A couple weeks ago, I thought it felt like “earthquake weather.” The feeling passed in a couple days. About 30 minutes ago, we had a 4.5 a few miles from here. It’s not on the news yet (except to say its size and location) but if it’s that close and nothing fell off my walls, it’s probably not that bad so I don’t feel too guilty (or stupid) for just standing up and surfing instead of protecting myself. But I reserve the right to amend that statement as news comes in.
Of course, the Earth revolves around me so I know the earthquake was my fault because I didn’t play golf. Either that or I just had to make this a golf related post somehow. Sorry, folks. I’ll try not to let it happen again.
Update (8.16.2007): Another earthquake occurred almost an hour ago (12:23 PM PST) in just about the same location. Preliminary reports say it was magnitude 3.5, which sounds about right because I barely felt it here, just 6 miles away. Makes me wonder though… is that area brewing something bigger?
Updates (8.10.2007): Minor quake, minor damage, no reports of injuries
It seems this is the worst damage that was reported or discovered after the earthquake.
According to the CBS News story:
Engineers determined the bridge sustained only cosmetic damage. It was reopened later in the day.
“The bridge did what it was designed to do. It expanded at the expansion joints allowing for movement of the structure without causing any issues,” city engineer Damon Letz said in a statement.
Being a little bridge shy already, I think I’ll stay off that one for awhile anyway.
I’m not much of a “weather porn” junkie (unlike a cousin of mine who simply can’t get enough) but I do enjoy the science and maps on some of those weather and geological websites. Here are some images I snagged from the USGS earthquake site:
Okay, I’ll get back to golf now.
August 9, 2007 at 11:44 am
Isn’t a 4.5 like a Bump in the night? I was out there in Palm Springs to ride out that 7.5 a few years ago…haven’t ever experienced an earthquake I got where the term ‘Rock-n-Roll’ came from. Since you control these things with turning down rounds of golf to produce a 4.5, you must have turned your nose up to a slot in the Women’s US Open for that one.
August 10, 2007 at 3:34 pm
You SoCal folk seem to have the market cornered on earthquakes…but we had a tornado touch down in Brooklyn a couple of days ago…
August 10, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Scot, you must mean the 7.3 in Landers in 1992. That’s about an hour away from Palm Springs and is the biggest earthquake we’ve had since probably the 50’s or longer. It caused serious damage. And I wasn’t a golfer back then, so they can’t blame me! The 6.7 in Northridge a couple years later also caused a lot of damage and chaos to the infrastructure.
4.5 can be significant if it’s close enough. I don’t usually feel ’em until they’re above 3.5 unless they’re right here.
Patricia,
I’ve been hearing about those storms back East. I’ll take a little shaking now and then over frequent bad weather and serious storms! Of course, until the “big one” hits.
August 13, 2007 at 2:15 pm
We just had tornadoes in Brooklyn. Not too far from the Dyker Heights golf course!!
Someone definitely does want people golfing these days, lol.
Love the blog!!