While our earthquake wasn't exactly San Francisco in 1906, when the whole city either collapsed or went up in flames, it was still a 5-ish on the Richter Scale. The scale is in orders of magnitude, so a 6 is ten times bigger than a 5 and a 100 times bigger than a four. Remember that quake the day after Christmas in 2004? Maybe not, you say, but that quake was the one that triggered the infamous Tsunami in Southeast Asia, killing over 200,000 people. That quake was 9.3, 10,000 times stronger than our little Iowa version and the second largest ever recorded.
I remember hearing about the Tsunami when we were vacationing in Hawaii over Christmas break. I was in the hotel room watching the TV for about an hour. I was just glad that the Tsunami didn't come and wipe away our hotel, since we were right on the beach and there was nothing between there and Indonesia to stop a massive wave. Luckily, I survived the day, and went on to enjoy my day, eventually reverting my mind to more pressing matters, such as helping my dad navigate as he drove, attempting to avoid crazy Hawaiian natives and clueless tourists.
Anyways, yet another quake has struck our small little world, killing some more Asians. Today, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked (no pun intended) Central China, where only like 5 billion people live. Luckily, only 10,000 have died (thats the current death toll and it will rise). Many of the buildings in the province collapsed, including a three-story school, trapping 900 children. If that happened in my school I would freak out, and Kennedy is only one story (well I guess two in places). If you have ever seen the movie World Trade Center with Nicholas Cage, you can truly appreciate what it would feel like to be trapped in a collapsed building with little hope of rescue.
Also besides the thousands of people dead, one of the giant pandas might be injured. O my God, not the panda.
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