Hi Don,

I remember that 8/8/89 quake quite well. It occurred in the middle of the night and shook my southern Petaluma home significantly. The front cement step to the house broke off and we got a large crack going up the side of the house. I was in bed at the time and awoke to see my feet going up and down. I thought to myself, "we are having a whiz banger of a quake, or this is one h..l of a dream." I was tired that night.

Meanwhile a few blocks away my babysitter was running around her deck trying to keep her potted plants in the stands upright. Apparently it was quite a feat.

But the above goes to show it doesn't take a large earthquake to do damage, it just depends on the soil type where you are. In that case the ground used to be a tule swamp and they built several subdivisions on top of it.

Last night when the notices arrived about the quake in Taiwan I rather took serious note. When Taiwan had its big quake in 1999 we had our 4.2 quake just to the east of the RCF. So far so good today.

Petra