[PRCo] Re: Weather.........................Anybody Out There?

[James B. Holland]

The Fault Line that caused the New Madrid quake runs up and over the 
Great Lakes, past Toronto and possibly heads back down to the States  
--  thus the shaking in Bean Town.       There was a rumble on it in the 
1970s before I moved from IL to This Quake Country.       Anything 
happens along this fault today and it is very possible for Shy-Town, 
Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto, Buffalo, and the northeast to feel it!

I lucked out in 1989  --  quake knocked over my desk chair  (free 
standing PCC motorman's seat)  and one book came off a bookshelf  --  
probably won't be so lucky next time around.       I was working a PM 
run on the 45 line that made the first two trips on a Foreign Line, the 
30-Stockton which serves the heart of the Marina, the area in SF most 
devastated by the Quake.       We did the Short-Loop for a couple 
months  (to VN North Point and Fish Wharf)  then we were allowed into 
the Marina Short-loop for a month until the normal route was 
restored.       One of my passengers worked in the Macy Annex which had 
the old fashioned lethal window glazing, some of which popped out but 
fortunately, no one was hurt.       She had also been in the devastating 
Whittier quake a few years earlier, and now lived in the heart of the 
Marina where all the devastation took place.       I asked:       
"""Nothing Personal, Ma'am, but why don't you ride someone else's bus 
from now on!"""

My Sister was the first one to actually move to CA around  LA-LA__LAnd  
about 1969  --  I had spent my service life out here 1963--1967  --  and 
she experienced the devastating earthquake of 1971 and Not A Few Since. 
      Even after the devastation of the first one she said neither Hades 
Nor High Water could even get her to consider moving back east  --  she 
was here to stay!       I had a driving trip planned to Tx in Jan early 
to mid-1990s when another earthquake hit  LA-LA  and shut down I-5, 
Main-Street between LA-LA and SF.       I used I-5 South,  TOTALLY  
mine,  until west of Bakersfield and detoured from there.

I Had Orders In Hand to man the pharmacy in Kodiak, Alaska, when that 
earthquake struck Anchorage in 1964.       We had some pretty decent 
Tremors / After Shocks while I was there and a patient, who had been 
through the Real Thing, braced himself in a doorway with Fear Inscribed 
on every millimeter of his face which also revealed Strength that, 
should anyone / thing be in his way if he needed to act, it would be All 
Over!

While I lived in Zion, IL, we had to put up with Very Fierce Thunder 
Storms and Tornados!       One storm was so fierce that the surge of 
water in the storm drain blew a manhole cover off in the middle of the 
street  --  good thing no vehicle was over it.       Another man and 
myself stopped and it was All We Could Do just to Slide that thing back 
into place  --  Very Heavy.

I lived one block east of Sheridan Road in Zion and there were 2 or 3 
streets east of me, then open fields / mild forest, NorthWestern double 
track main, then marsh for a good quarter mile or more up to Lake 
Michigan.       Was watching TV one night when I thought I heard a train 
passing by and it kept getting louder and louder, rather unusual, then 
suddenly the whole house shuddered fiercely, then the noise was 
gone.       Within seconds the Landlord's Son called and said a Tornado 
had just gone over us.

Then there is The Bitter Cold, Ice, Snow, and other storms as 
well.       Think I have been in snow Only One Time since being in CA 
and that is when I took the kids to Yosemite in the winter.       When I 
was in Houston in the 1990s, it did snow there but didn't settle  --  
flakes, like everything else in TX, were quite large and far apart, but 
it did snow.       And Christmas of 1998 it snowed in SF  --  very 
light, didn't settle, and had to stop to watch to make sure it was snow, 
but it was.       I enjoyed winter While I Had To Put Up With It  --  
but Definitely Do Not Miss Winter Now!



Fred Schneider wrote:

> It can happen anywhere Herb. It is just more likely to happen in 
> places like California, Italy, Alaska, Iceland. I think the most 
> severe quake in recorded North American history was in New Madrid, Mo. 
> If I remember my geology courses well enough, it was said to have rung 
> church bells in Boston. But it did no damage because no one lived in 
> the Mississippi River valley yet ... or rather no one of white 
> European descent.
>
> I had my hand in my dogs mouth one night trying to extricate something 
> he should not have picked up. And a minor earthquake struck here in 
> Lancaster. Only 4.5 ... one 700th or so of the one you describe. But 
> every hair on that dogs back stood up. And the last place I want my 
> hand is in the mouth of a scared Dobermann.
>
> hrbran99 at adelphia.net wrote:
>
>> Yes, Camelot until the ground starts shaking at something above 6.0 
>> on the scale for such happenings. I was in SF in Jan, 1980 and had 
>> applied to both Contra-Costa Transit and SF Muni Railway and WAS 
>> planning to move there. I never dreamed that a frame house could sway 
>> from side to side with such violence and remain standing and that 
>> streetcar tracks could become "fluid" and look like four snakes 
>> twisting down a street and then return to their normal position 
>> without being bent. Needless to say I returned to Pittsburgh.
>> HrB
>>
>>> SF Ideal for Working, temperature wise -- Camelot -- only rains in 
>>> the Winter -- now If Only we could get it to Only Rain from 4-PM til 
>>> 2-AM while working -- Tanfastic!!!!!!!
>>


Jim__Holland


I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!

down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!