Just a minor plate shift is how the experts describe it, explaining to the doom forecasters that just like old men in church, every now and then old Mother Earth has to shift a little so things don’t get numb. But immediate reaction to the shake around the great lake — once it was determined that the ABB tower was still standing and that the trembling wasn’t just another thunderous ego clash among the region’s business and government leaders — was widespread relief served up with a humbling realization of how quickly things can turn to rubble and how very little we can do about it.
When folks from New York to Myrtle Beach are sensing the shimmy at the same time, you get a better understanding of the devastation an earthquake could deliver. In far away locations, like Japan, Haiti and Chile, it’s easy to think “how sad” and turn the channel. But when the floor under your own feet, the light fixtures over your own head and the tall buildings around and beside you start swaying, it’s a much more serious situation.
It’s an eye-opener, for sure, but also one that, for reasons good and bad, gets little attention in these parts. Fortunately in the Southeast, earthquakes, and even the little tremblers that West Coasters dismiss with ease, are rare. Charleston knows the devastation possible in this part of the world, but that’s ancient history around here. We rumble every few decades and get bombarded from the blowhards who say we’re due for a big one, but then things start stirring in the Atlantic and a natural force we know much more about captures our attention.
Hurricane Irene is the current distraction. While Hugo’s 22-year-old scars are still evident throughout the Carolinas and Talkers who have been here a while are well aware of the inland wallop the sea can deliver, we grasp the concept of a violent wind and water maelstrom — one that whips through in a few hours and leaves the massive clean-up to us — much more firmly than something that rattles the very foundation we live on. For us, you can have all the earthquakes and keep ’em to yourself.
