Hi Byron,

We had all better hope that there are no earthquake disaters in the next two years or we will all be holding the bag ourselves.

If the quakes of 1811 and 1812 are of any guidance, then everyone should be aware the southeast would definitely not look like it does today after a 6.0 or larger earthquake. They have countless unreinforced brick and masonry structures and those babies will topple during a quake. They have had the same kinds of problems in California of course, but it would probably be to a lesser degree than the southeast. Not only that, they've long forgotten they live in earthquake country, not unlike a good deal of westerners as well.

I'm hopeful that if they can figure out what went wrong with this hurricane and flood problem in regard to victim assistance, then maybe when we have our next earthquake they'll have it fine tuned. A repeat performance was had by some today when some victims stood in line for hours hoping to get checks from FEMA only to find they had to fill out forms and got nothing. Some had already filled out forms before. After Loma Prieta some folks filled them out 3 times and still didn't get a dime.

I go out and visit around the net every now and then just to see if I can liven things up a bit and I'm normally not disappointed. Sometimes its like that in real life too. Of course I don't hold a candle to Bella Abzug when it comes to getting up one's nose, but I'm working on it. Everyone should be glad I'm not rich or I'd be up on Capital Hill stirring the pot.

Petra