Blog draft june 24 26

Earthquakes

I was born in southern California. Pasadena. Lived in Altadena just to the north and at the foothills of Mount Wilson with the observatory. Lived on the Mojave Desert for 3 years, then back to Altadena until our new home was built in Glendora just west of Claremont and Pomona. We were aware of earthquakes, of course, but they were not frequent. When they happen, we watched the damage reports closely. We worried about such happening to us.

Yes, we felt earthquakes. While riding in a car we noticed the odd movement of telephone poles and their wires. At home, we instantly looked to the chandelier for movement. At night, the rolling floor caused chest of drawers and wall mounted mirrors to knock on the walls. That woke us from deep sleep. But most of the time we slept through such happenings.

We knew the kind of damage expected from an earthquake. I didn’t see or experience any of it. No cracked roadways or collapsed buildings. No bed sticking halfway out of a hole in the floor. Maybe some slopped beverages at the table, but little else.

I moved to Massachusetts when I was 11. No history of earthquakes there. Same with Syracuse, New York six years later. The rest of my life, however, has been spent in Illinois. Shaking earth is not a feature of this flat land. However, at least three quakes occurred that I noticed. One was at seminary on the campus of the University of Chicago (1968), another was in winter in Warrenville, Illinois 30 miles west of Chicago (2000?). There was one shaker when I lived in Wheaton, but I was in Chicago at work at the University of Illinois- Chicago at the time.

Each of those moments stirred newspaper account of the New Madrid fault quake back in the early 1800’s.  Devastating damage then. And the threat continues for the central plains from this very fault. Some time in the next 50 years, experts agree the fault will make a big move. With a large population and skyscrapers dotting the landscape, damage is certain to be horrendous. I wonder how we will deal with that? Will building codes change? Will it be enough to matter?

I experienced the largest earthquake in my lifetime while attending a conference in Long Beach, California. It was 1994. Damage was horrific. $50 billion damage was realized. Over 60 people lost their lives. I saw only a little damage, none life threatening, but to all of us from Minnesota and Illinois attending the conference, the experience was life changing.

Maybe we should talk about this?

June 24, 2026

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