The Great DC Earthquake

It was, shall we say, not exactly on the scale of the Chilean earthquake.

A 3.6 magnitude earthquake woke the Washington metro region Friday, rattling homes and startling people.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it happened at exactly 5:04:49 a.m. about 3 miles under the earth's surface.

Officials warn there could be aftershocks in the coming days.

Aftershocks?  Where I come from, 3.6 IS the aftershock!  If you're lucky.

Not to be too jaded or anything, but I slept through the entire thing, as any former Californian would have.  A 3.6 is a pimple on a real earthquake's ass.

One intrepid DC metro area resident took photographs of the devastation.  You've got to see it to believe it.

Earthquake

Chile was hit with one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded this past weekend. The 8.8 monster killed at least 214 people and was felt as far away as the River Plate in Argentina.

I have some history with Chile. I lived there for a short time in the late 70's. I have very fond memories of the Chilean people. They are very warm-hearted and giving.

Just recently, thanks to the world-shrinking technology of the old WWW, I was contacted via Facebook by two old friends from Chile, whom I'll refer to as 'Carlos' and 'Pati' in the interest of maintaining their privacy. My prayers are with them.

I've never experienced an earthquake bigger than about 4.5 to 5.0 in spite of having lived in a couple of places reknown for their earthquakes (California and Chile). I can't imagine the horror of a three minute quake of that intensity.

Let's keep Chile in our prayers, gang.