Hi Chris,

I'm attaching a link to a site that covers earthquake news stories. That was one of the first places I went to yesterday morning to find out what had happened. In most all of them they are a blend of the scientific data and personal accounts from folks living in the area.

Anytime I want to get in touch with the real story I go there and then I can get a somewhat balanced point of view.

The good news is that as the news media is covering these events it is an ever present reminder that earthquakes occur in almost every state in the Union and preparedness issues are important. While most people on the west coast are fully aware they live in earthquake country and some percentage have a modium of knowledge about what to do when one occurs, on the east coast its a whole different matter. Few know they are in seismic risk zones and matters such as retrofitting and preparedness are not discussed regularly.

Of course on the west coast in the public media they don't talk about earthquakes often enough either. But after the Seattle area quake last year they did reveal that a lot of preparedness was done in advance of this anticipated event and the damaged was lessened by their efforts and communications were excellent. The ole plus and minus thing.

Petra

• Earthquake News Web Site