I'll take a hurricane over an earthquake. I know its coming, I can get ready, and it does not shake my house to pieces, just blows it apart and throws water all over everything... wait!

" i own OCEANFRONT PROPERTY in ARII-ZONEY" sung by some redneck hillbilly billy bob thelma lou liz!

BTW - When are you guys getting credit cards from FEMA? oops sorry, I mean the Dept of Homeland Security.

I've never been in an earthquake and I'll take it over a hurricane any day...earthquakes don't have people blocking gas stations and grocery stores for days, don't have 50,000 cars stuck on a freeway for 12 hours, and don't have weathermen screaming "omg run!!!" for 10 days.

Tornadoes are even better. If you live, you got a great story to tell. If you don't...well, no one has to fight over the house after you've died :)

Except for the run part that might be a typical day in LA.

No, all those you list are the after effects of an earthquake. ;)

Not to mention that everyone lives outside of their houses for a few days too.

Yeah, to show you how strange earthquakes can be, the Northridge Quake took out a large portion of Santa Monica, and both are 20 or so miles from each other. People in Santa Monica were living on the grass medium going down San Vicente to the beach. I remember it looked like a Third World refugee camp.

An earthquake happens, once every few years. There is NO SEASON for earthquakes. Like EVERY YEAR for hurricanes and tornados.

Over here in Mission Viejo in southern OC, my wife and I were in a 24hr fitness getting ready to work out when I felt a big thump and a slight lifting sensation under my feet, followed by some minor shaking afterward. It was really minor down here (but that THUMP feeling under my feet was kind of strange).

Personally, when I was in Long Beach for the '87 quake, that one felt MUCH stronger than this one. That one had some duration and a side-to-side swaying motion that made it kind of difficult to hold my balance for a few seconds.

I lived in Florida for 22 years now, it took 18 years for me to get my 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and its been 3 years now with none.

That makes them more frightening, IMO.

I once dated a woman who experienced "aftershocks."

When they showed on the news early this morning that San Bernardino had a 3.1 quake I kind of laughed because no one would really feel that. But, in the back of my mind, I always wonder if these small ones could set off larger ones. Even scarier, which is the one that will set off the powderkeg known as the San Andreas fault?

There is also no warning either.

I was on the freeway, didn't feel a thing. The usual "flat tire" experience didn't happen either. My fish tank is still in one piece and in the same spot. That's a relief.

I was in a meeting in a single wide construction trailer in E.L.A. Funny, about half the people at the meeting aren't from California and had never experienced an earthquake. They looked panicked while the rest of us kept talking .

The woman next to me asked, "What do I do? Go under the table?"

I lived in Whittier for the 1987 earthquake and had over $25,000 damage done to my house ...and that's in 1987 dollars. It was approximately the same magnitude but did a LOT of damage in Whittier. Most don't remember that quake anymore, Northridge made us forget it but it was a serious one.

I'm now completely convinced that some of you guys just want to "debate" each other for absolutely no reason at all.

I'd chip in, but we don't have either of your catastrophes over here.SmileWavy

Hope everyone's ok!

I was in a meeting in a single wide construction trailer in E.L.A. Funny, about half the people at the meeting aren't from California and had never experienced an earthquake. They looked panicked while the rest of us kept talking .

The woman next to me asked, "What do I do? Go under the table?"

I lived in Whittier for the 1987 earthquake and had over $25,000 damage done to my house ...and that's in 1987 dollars. It was approximately the same magnitude but did a LOT of damage in Whittier. Most don't remember that quake anymore, Northridge made us forget it but it was a serious one.

Although I'm sure HR wouldn't see the humor, but I would expect "Wait till after the meeting" to be a favorable response to that question.