[CE] Earthquake hits Turkey

Where have I been?!



I need to start watching the news more often. I had no idea that this happened. Recap: 7.2 magnitude, over 2000 buildings destroyed, death toll is at about 500. Geez. If there's one natural disaster that I'm most scared of, it's probably an earthquake. Tornadoes I can handle. I actually think it would be crazy cool to get up close and personal with a twister. Maybe I'll become a storm chaser when I get older. But seriously. With a tornado, you can see it coming. Even before it drops, you have a warning and most times you can see the funnel clouds above you and you have a couple seconds to run to a cellar or a basement or any type of structurally sound area of your house for cover. With a tsunami, you need more time do get to safety however you do have a warning and if you're smart, you should have a well thought out escape plan to get to high ground. With an earthquake, yeah you can come up with some emergency plan and you can have everything thought out and you can know the safest places in your house to go hide (under a door frame, next to a heavy object) but earthquakes alone only last a few seconds and there's no way to predict one. So, if you think about it, by the time you realize there's an earthquake and get to a safe place the earthquake could already almost be over and you could have gotten injured on the way.
You have no way of being fully prepared. God forbid you're in an area that is surrounded by water, then you have to worry about a huge tsunami as well. Alameda is probably one of the worst possible places to be if there was a tsunami because we are an island surrounded almost completely by water. We would be hit pretty hard. At the same time, we are not too far from elevation. It all depends on how much time we would have to get to the hills.
Back to the point, my heart goes out to the families in Turkey. The only thing you can do after an earthquake it hope your family is okay, and wait until help comes. You're almost helpless in the aftermath. Considering we're due for a pretty big one, I'm a little bit on edge myself...