Quake Miscellany

I'm fit to be tied after reading the Topix comments (at least the first dozen, or so) to the Times- Standard's article and follow up on the earthquake. Seems most people are intent on bashing the T-S for what they deem to be poor reporting and being "scooped" by media from outside the area. What these people don't seem to recognize is that those other news media didn't have to do their jobs directly at ground zero in the aftermath of a major earthquake.

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Phone problems? I read some mention in the T-S story of someone saying their phone wasn't working. Maybe it's a problem with the phone lines, but check your other phones if you have more than one. That was our problem. Our downstairs phone wouldn't work, although internet worked fine. Finally realized the upstairs phone was off the hook after falling off a table. Problem solved.

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This could of really sucked. At least in didn't happen at 2 in the morning, or when it was raining.

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Local governments often offer free building inspections after big earthquakes. Think twice about accepting one. If they think your home is unsafe they can force you out of your home.

We had one done after the '92 quake. He found the house safe enough but told us we needed to get a building permit to take down our chimney. The permit was free for earthquake damage, but it was just a hassle. If we hadn't of called him I would of just taken the chimney down.

Same thing if you have earthquake insurance. Think twice before calling a claims adjuster. We had quake insurance back in the '92 quake, which caused considerable damage to our home. We called State Farm to have the damage assessed. The assessor gal spent a couple hours in our dinky house and found damage we hadn't noticed. The total cost came in just below our $6k deductible.

The bad part of it was she went back to the company and reported what she thought were unsafe conditions in the house that were outside the purview of earthquake insurance- a blocked doorway (to the right of where I'm sitting right now) is one I recall. She recommended the house policy be reassessed, or some such, which I'm guessing meant we should be paying higher premiums.

Turned out the local agent just came by, took some pictures of the house, and that was it. I suspect we owe the local agent for not dinging us and raising our insurance rates as they never changed. The door in question is still blocked. There's at least three other ways out of this room, one directly to the back yard.

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I got to thinking yesterday, what ever happened to my earthquake proofing plan I got started on years ago? I wanted to secure things around the house so things wouldn't break like they did yesterday. One thing I was going to do was put latches on the cupboards in the kitchen so the doors wouldn't fly open in an earthquake.

I ended up getting a couple of those hook and eye things from the hardware store so, when you close the cupboard, you can secure the hook the the eye and the door won't open. I only ended up doing the two cupboards next to the sink that hold all our dishes. Then I forgot about them.

Could of saved a few things from breaking if I'd have used them regularly and on all the cupboards. They're latched closed now. I need to find some industrial strength velcro now. That can be used to secure televisions and such to whatever they're sitting on.

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Oh, and I almost forgot: Looking at the photos in the Times- Standard this morning, I noticed at least some folks in Henderson Center were covering windows with plywood. Where'd the plywood come from all of the sudden? I guess there was probably still time to go buy some?

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And speaking of covering up broken windows, I came up with a unique way to cover a few windows at the Matteolis: Old election signs.

He had maybe 3 medium sized windows that there wasn't much left of. I suggested some cardboard or a tarp. Marc went to look and see what he had available and I went back to my house to see what I had. I noticed a couple of old "No On Measure T" yard signs I'd saved from way back then. They were the larger ones about 4'x5'(?). I thought they might just fill the gap and, even better, they were made to handle weather.

They worked quite well in covering up the window space. For the last big hole, I brought over 3 "Anton For Assembly" signs. They were the more standard sized yard signs. We taped the 3 of them together and they covered up the hole quite nicely. Good enough for a temporary fix, anyway.