On August 23, 2011, the East Coast was rocked by a violent earthquake. By violent I mean tepid. And by tepid, I mean I initially thought that I was just dizzy from not eating yet for the day. What does that say when a natural disaster doesn’t instill fear in me but the idea that I must simply be hungry? It says that it wasn’t actually a natural disaster but an occurrence that took place and people should calm down about it already.
When it happened, I was at work in Manhattan with a girl originally from California. She explained to me that we had just had an earthquake but that it was very minor compared to what she had experienced before when she was living in Los Angeles. Even though I have no prior experience in dealing with natural disasters, I immediately sided with the seasoned vet: There wasn't really much to get nervous over.
While this now raises the question of how often New York, and the East Coast in general, may be hit with earthquakes, it is no reason to immediately go into panic mode. There are available resources out there that explain exactly what one should do in case of an earthquake. Is it a pain now that East Coast residents will have to learn what to do? Sure, but look at it on the bright side. Now we can truly say New York has it all.
Yes, there were people thrown off by the earthquake here in Manhattan, but the overall response I got from people? We're New Yorkers and we ain't scared of no earthquake!
Image courtesy of the NY Daily News
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