Happy New Year!

This morning I checked off one New Year resolution by covering additional kitchen shelves with Rubbermaid Grip Liner - rolls were purchased before 2003 but installed today after house guests left. I follow several earthquake-related Web sites, including Petra's and yours, and sometimes review or show phone book earthquake pages to guests, but those resources didn't cause me to cover more shelves. That impetus was from felt earthquakes during a recent swarm.

These days many people avoid TV commercials and public service announcements by switching channels or recording with TIVO. It might not be possible to convince residents to prepare for earthquakes before they experience one. After any felt earthquake, local interest in preparation becomes greater for a brief time. At other times some kind of incentive stronger than TV or publication is needed by many of us, but I don't have a multimedia suggestion. People who believe that concentrating on a disaster could cause it to happen might never be persuaded to prepare.

Mary C.