So apparently the cool thing to do is to post earthquake disaster photos such as this:
Which reminded me of this classic Sadly, No! post.
by John Cole| 99 Comments
This post is in: Clown Shoes
So apparently the cool thing to do is to post earthquake disaster photos such as this:
Which reminded me of this classic Sadly, No! post.
Comments are closed.
Loneoak
I thought of exactly the same thing. Mah char-coal grill!
RandyH
Better photos of today’s earthquake destruction here.
FlipYrWhig
@Loneoak: My first thought too. Dashed to the ground! Voluntary contributions only!
srv
I was commenting on Balloon-Juice when the great earthquake happened. I promptly forgot the experience.
Arclite
I think what caused the earthquake was Tunch farting. The epicenter coincides to closely with JC’s residence…
On a more serious note, when bricks fall out of building people might get hurt. I hope no one did.
kd bart
If only Obama had been willing to use the bully pulpit. This earthquake could have been avoided.
Mnemosyne
And if any East Coasters wonder why we’re mocking their terror, here’s a representative photo from the Northridge earthquake of 1994 where the fucking freeway collapsed.
Call me when what happened to the Bay Bridge in 1989 happens to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Wussies.
Linda Featheringill
@RandyH:
quake photos:
Those are so cute! :-)
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Of course, the reason the pumps failed in Japan was flooding from the tsunami and not the shaking of the earthquake, but why should ABC let that get in the way of a good fearmongering?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
y’all west coasters laugh it up, but the earthquake dirtied nearly every dish in my kitchen, and damn near disheveled the place.
cleek
the earthquake caused me to put in yet another half-assed day of work!
RandyH
@Mnemosyne:
And don’t forget the MacArthur Freeway…
RossInDetroit
The earthquake caused my cell phone call to drop! I had to reboot & stuff. I can never get those seconds back.
cathyx
Ok, love the picture. I really did laugh out loud.
cathyx
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: And I bet it unmade your bed and threw all your dirty laundry on the floor.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Whenever I think of LA and earthquakes I think of the Doobies.
suzanne
When I, a native Long Islander, got home, I immediately assured my husband, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, that a good friend of mine who lives in DC was okay and uninjured. He said, “No offense, but it would not have even occurred to me to wonder if he was okay or not. That wasn’t even a teacup-rattler.”
However, he’s all worried about the hurricane, to which I said, “Eh, they’ll just put some boards over the windows and be all good.”
Funny how you get so blase about the dangers you grew up with.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@cathyx:
damn you musta had the same earthquake.
kd bart
Suzanne:
It’s like watching Southerners react to a couple inches of snow. As a Northerner down here, I laugh.
Mnemosyne
@RossInDetroit:
Everything’s amazing and no one is happy
– Louis CK
Violet
That poor chair. It could have been any of them.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Violet: Oh, GOD saved them.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I’ll let the people of New Orleans do the size comparison for that.
RossInDetroit
@Mnemosyne: I thought of that clip last night. I was reading a book on Einstein’s Relativity. They mention that it takes electromagnetic energy less than a second to get from Earth to orbit and back. Louis states the distance is responsible for the delay in a cell phone call (or an overseas call, I forget which). Not technically true, as you wouldn’t notice sub-second latency. But his point is still well taken. Technology is astonishing and we’re still not satisfied.
boss bitch
This was God’s answer to all those Republicans asking him if they should enter the presidential race. He returned their call a bit too late of course.
El Cid
@kd bart:
I’m pretty sure it’s more economically rational to have some snowed-in days than purchase billions of dollars of snow & ice removal equipment and snow tires etc for snowy or icy weather which may not happen.
The funny thing is how people in Atlanta don’t know how to drive in response to rain.
You give ’em snowy streets, and suddenly they’ll slow down, increase following distance, brake more gently, etc.
As soon as there’s rain and thus slippery roads (particularly at first when oil layers are spread but not washed away yet), these shit-heads start slamming into each other, because, you know, fuck, they’ve never seen rain before, or whatever.
El Cid
Also, remember that Confederate Yankee was begging his readers for muh-nee because his grill done fell over.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@El Cid: You got that right!
robertdsc-PowerBook
What a bunch of bitches. Bleh.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Goin to replay at the Little League WS on a bad call against Georgia.
OVERRULED! He’s outa dere!
Mnemosyne
Though I will say, given the pictures that have been posted, people on the East Coast seem to be finding the breathless media coverage as ridiculous as I do, so there’s that.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne:
See, I’m in the opposite school — I always pay attention to the hurricane forecasts, even though there weren’t any really bad hurricane incidents in my Bronx-based childhood, but when I was living in Michigan I always found the local terror of tornados fairly risible.
Massachusetts seems to have lived up to its microclimatic reputation — people felt today’s quake on the Cape, the South Shore, even Cambridge, but not in the northern or western suburbs. Of course, I’d have dismissed it as just another semi rumbling down our street anyways, but the newscasters are slightly amazed at the spottiness of eyewitness reports.
kd bart
El Cid,
I’m in the Atlanta burbs. It’s the desperate run to Kroger or Publix’s to get a month worth of food and water for a snow that will melt in a day that makes me laugh.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@kd bart: I’ve been in Athens for 26+ years and I’ve seen headlines in the local rag “Snow Forecasted” a week ahead!
PurpleGirl
More pictures of the earthquake damage (Maha says “Oh, the humanity!”)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Jeffro
Funny thing is, literally NO ONE – not at work, not my better half here at home – knew what to do in case of a ‘quake.
Better Half to me tonight after putting the kids to bed: “so (even though she didn’t feel it, and dismissed our 6-year-old when he said “Mommy the HOUSE is SHAKING” as stupid kid-talk)…should I have taken the kids down to the basement or something?”
Um yes, yes you should dear. And in case of a tornado, please get out into the middle of our suburban street and just stand there…
Violet
@suzanne:
Grew up paying attention to hurricane forecasts and I still do. Not blase at all. Lived through two significant ones. I take hurricane season seriously.
JPL
If according to the right wing Obama caused this earthquake, he did a piss poor job..imo.
Violet
@Jeffro:
Not even the “stand in a doorway” response? That’s what they do on TV shows and in movies. That’s how I know about it.
The Dangerman
@El Cid:
Once in the LA area, a long time ago, there was a traffic slowdown on the freeway because there was (EGADS) a rainbird spraying water on the freeway and people were slowing down to avoid and drive around it. I can only assume it was to prevent ruining their recent wash and wax, but, really, how mental does one have to be to hit the brakes and cause congestion in response to water.
scav
I’ve rather enjoyed The Guardians implicit ranking of The Earthquake! with Facebook’s changing its privacy options.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@The Dangerman:
Roll down the window put down the top
Crank up the Beach Boys baby
Don’t let the music stop
We’re gonna ride it till we just can’t ride it no more
>From the South Bay to the Valley
>From the West Side to the East Side
Everybody’s very happy
‘Cause the sun is shining all the time
Looks like another perfect day
Jager
@Mnemosyne: I was on 101 heading to the airport when the San Francisco earthquake hit. I remember riding in the cab, thinking this piece of shit has the worst shocks of any car in the world! Then I looked out the window and saw the rest of the traffic dancing around, too!
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
That 94 picture? I saw that from my bedroom window. So I’m a little bit less than concerned on how terrifying this was in VA.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Jager: I was in a bar in Athens watching the series and a famous Rumi scholar walked in and I said “hey, did you hear about the earthquake in San Franciso”? He turned white as a sheet, his son lived there. He was ok.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Ah Cornfidiot Wankee; too one-dimensional for fiction so he’s gotta be the real thing.
It pains me to say it but DC/Metroareans do that as well. I’ve come to the conclusion that some ancient law requires the residents to freak out and make asses of themselves so Northerners will feel superior.
@Mnemosyne: Oh God yes. I mean, it was exciting and all but Jesus Christ, give it a rest. I shall now take some pictures of the stunning damage to our home. Four, count ’em FOUR cardboard boxes fell off a shelf.
peej
I grew up being fairly blase about snow forecasts (Syracuse, NY area). Now that I live in the DC burbs, I pay a lot more attention. Why? 1. I now have to shovel the stuff. 2. Drivers here go nuts when things fall out of the sky (rain, snow, hail, etc). 3. Figuring out how much to mock my fellow workers when they complain about a couple of inches .
The first year I lived in Denver, there was a flurry of small tornadoes one afternoon. One even passed right over downtown. I was amazed at the fact that people were standing outside looking at them since I had lived in Omaha for the previous 2 years (where tornadoes are taken very seriously…my apartment complex even had a basement shelter for all of us.
I’m somewhat freaked out by earthquakes since, unlike hurricanes, they’re unpredictable.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
You know, I don’t think the average east coaster panicked to the degree that the sniveling babies of the Village did.
Loneoak
Come to think of it, Gastritis Broke My Calculator is uncannily similar to Humberto Knocked over Mah Char-coal Grill.
suzanne
@El Cid:
Oh holy shit, they do that here in Phoenix, too. Because of the caliche soil, water doesn’t really soak into the ground. So it flash-floods. Fuckers everywhere seem to think that driving really fast is obviously a really good idea. Then, inevitably, some complete fuckin’ matoko-chan-level fuckwit will attempt to drive through the wash, and have to be rescued by helicopter.
It was even scarier in Tucson, because there’s no storm drains. I remember stepping off the sidewalk after it had been raining for under five minutes, and the water was already halfway up to my knee.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@suzanne: Ah, the El Charro Cafe!
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Doesn’t sound like many people panicked at all.
The media on the other hand… Aren’t people with college degrees supposed to have a modicum of brains? I crack myself up.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Ruckus: Rachel is freaking out now. I knew she would, she hates some nukes!
Villago Delenda Est
@suzanne:
Just had to see this again.
Carry on!
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, I softened it a bit in later comments. The media is just so fucking desperate to talk about anything but real life, aren’t they?
PurpleGirl
@suzanne: In 1990 I was in Phoenix for an arbitration case, and one day it snowed and all I heard about on the news casts were the accidents on the roads. It was like an inch ! of snow.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Mnemosyne: Well, it’s give Rachel another chance to rail about nuclear safety.
mikefromArlington
Update your pic with this one.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n200/SRVDciple/88375c84.jpg
Ruckus
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Not exactly fond myself, but what’da ya gonna do?
Southern Beale
Saw that photo on Facebook. It cracked me up! As did this:
LOL. I know it’s a little trite at this point to say “X is the new Balloon Boy,” but I kinda think the earthquake coverage might have been a tad overplayed. But what do I know, I was on a train for most of the morning.
El Cid
Also, whenever there’s a bad snow/ice storm forecastipated, and people go rushing to the grocery store, they always clean them out of bread & milk.
Do they eat and drink this much bread & milk regularly? Are they planning a diet of mushy bread? Lots of toast?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Ruckus: I know and I really respect her but goddamn!
mikefromArlington
…and toilet paper.
PurpleGirl
@El Cid: I don’t think so but they get crazy about not having deliveries to the store for a few days.
BruceFromOhio
Drama is easy.
Comedy? Now comedy, that’s hard.
Villago Delenda Est
@El Cid:
They should be buying bread and eggs, for lots of french (or, as we now should say, freedom) toast.
Idiots.
themann1086
@Loneoak: Yup, it was my first thought as well :D Such a classic!
PurpleGirl
A friend just pointed me to this site for disaster news/updates worldwide:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php#
Jebediah
@Mnemosyne:
That earthquake was a pip, wasn’t it? I earned some good-husband points by throwing my body over my wife and staying there til it was over. We lived less than a mile from the collapse-y part. Sounded and felt like a freight train going through the house.
trollhattan
@RandyH:
Lordy, teh funneh! Especially loved the prostrate PostIt.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I was sorry to hear about your work situation (in whatever thread it was that I read way too late). What is it that you make or sell? Anything anybody on BJ might want or need?
El Cid
Qaddafi: ‘It’s only a flesh wound!‘
Well, yes, in a literal sense, it was a tactical move, i.e., he believed it to be to his military advantage not to be where there was a lot of bombing and rebels about to take over.
RossInDetroit
@Jebediah:
I’d get points for that any day.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
here is the thing about snow, the local tv media freaks out the old people with the most over the top alarmist coverage possible. the oldsters freak out a bit, and call the youngsters who of course don’t watch local tv news.
the only real reason to go to a store before a storm, is if you want to have provisions like cigarettes and irish coffee on hand to make sure you can take your sweet time digging out.
Villago Delenda Est
@PurpleGirl:
That is a very cool site. Bookmarked.
SiubhanDuinne
@photo, top:
::shakes fist:: YOU DAMN CHAIR GET OFF MY LAWN !!
dr. luba
@mikefromArlington: This poster is even nicer……with doubleplus good patriotism!
Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne
Twice is nice, but the third time is sublime.
Villago Delenda Est
@dr. luba:
Don’t give Michelle Bachmann any ideas, gosh darn it…
Jebediah
@RossInDetroit:
Touché.
Southern Beale
Well to be fair, there WAS damage to the National Cathedral.
But yeah … not like what the West Coast is used to.
SiubhanDuinne
@dr. luba: Okay. That had me not just laughing out loud but weeping with snarky mirth.
suzanne
@PurpleGirl: Yeah, I know. People here really can’t drive worth a damn. My mother-in-law was visiting a couple of weeks ago (she didn’t compare me to a cow this time, so YAY improvement), and she noted that people here tend to see the speed limit as merely a polite suggestion.
@El Cid: I have often wondered why people buy shitloads of milk, too. It’s perishable, dumbasses. Because of all the Mormons and survivalists here, they sell these giant buckets of a product called “Emergency Food Supply” at Costco. It’s some amino acid- and protein-enriched vitamin powder weirdness that you mix with water to make this mushy paste that supposedly can keep you alive. I sampled it once. If that is surviving, I choose death.
trollhattan
@dr. luba:
As we approach the One-Decade Wingnut Christmas, this image wins the internets.
Jeffro
@Violet: Nope, not even the doorway thingy…I think I need to go order some of those Worst-Case Scenario bathroom readers for home and office distribution…
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Own a bicycle shop. Lots of people need what I sell, they just don’t seem to be in a buying mood.
ericblair
@suzanne:
To be a bit fair about this, the more south you get the more ice storms versus snow storms you get. Even when you’re supposed to be used to snow (I used to live in Canada), the first storm of the season people drive like morons before they get used to the idea again.
In the DC area, for some reason, you’re supposed to stock up on eggs, bread, milk, and toilet paper. I guess French toast must give you the shits or something; that’s the only logic I see in all that.
Cain
@Jebediah:
Did ya make out after that? I mean there are you are, and there she is…
Jebediah
@Cain:
Should have! But there was a fair amount of stuff tossed about and some breakage, and a scared cat and that sort of killed the mood…
Libby's Person
A couple of years ago, Raleigh NC was brought to a standstill for 3 days by 1/2 inch of afternoon snow. People abandoned their cars on I-40. I got lucky – I didn’t know what was happening but saw that traffic was backed up, figured that I’d never get to my meeting in time, and got off at the last exit before the parking lot. I wasn’t having any trouble driving (I lived in Pittsburgh for 10 pretty snowy years), so I assumed the backup was due to an accident. If I’d missed that exit, I wouldn’t have gotten my car out of the jam for 3 days. I still laugh with disbelief. 1/2 inch of snow!
MattR
@Libby’s Person: My dad grew up in North Dakota (but moved to suburban NYC) and he would drive my mom crazy when he would drive to work when there were three or four inches on the ground. Of course, she was not worried about his driving abilities, but rather those of the other people on the road. First time I ever drove a car was on an empty, snowy parking lot where my dad showed me what could happen and how I should react.
Mnemosyne
@Cain:
I can’t speak for Jebediah since I was a single girl living alone with my cat at the time, but after Northridge my primary thought after the shaking stopped was more along the lines of, “getthefuckoutgetthefuckoutGETTHEFUCKOUT!!”
Of course, it was pitch-black because the power was out all over LA so like the Midwest-bred moron I am, I lit a candle. Of course, I did it from the gas-powered wall heater (which was still on) so if there had been a gas leak, I would have blowed up long before I was able to get a candle, but still ….
Jebediah
@Mnemosyne:
In your defense, had there been leaking gas, you would have smelled it and known not to light anything and to get the hell out and start looking for the gas shut-off – thank FSM for that stinky stuff they put in gas.
Not a bad time to remind folks – if you don’t know where your gas valve is, go find out. I’ve heard getting blowed up sucks.
tisalaska
For fuck sake..5.8? Hardly gets the dust off the coffee table around here…
FlipYrWhig
@ericblair:
I never used to get that either. My best guess is that’s it’s supposed to be kid-friendly staples that will get your family through the worst of it without having to venture back out. Why people who don’t have kids still do it… that I can’t explain.
honus
@El Cid: “I’m pretty sure it’s more economically rational to have some snowed-in days than purchase billions of dollars of snow & ice removal equipment and snow tires etc for snowy or icy weather which may not happen.”
Yeah, I’ve repeatedly tried t explain to all the people who complain that we close school here on the mere threat of snow that it’s a whole lot easier to go to school on a day in early June than to run a bunch of school busses around the in snow and ice, on narrow ridge roads in January. If we get a big snow, we stay home for a day or two and it’s gone. if you did that in Buffalo, you wouldn’t go out for four or five months. The yankees just don’t get it, though, so they go out and try to drive around, get stuck and block the roads, and I have to pull them out in my 4WD pickup because they don’t understand you can’t drive a Cadillac to the liquor store in uncleared snow.
One of my favorite bumper stickers has always been “We really don’t care how you do it up north”
bjacques
@dr. luba:
It’s not the same without a Lee Greenwood “Message to the Vril-Ya” song and an invasion of the hollow earth.
Though tradition demands we attack the moon instead.
Lojasmo
In Minnesota, the worst we have to worry about is getting to the ski hills in an 18″ snowfall.
Canuckistani Tom
@El Cid:
I’ve always wondered, where is the line between ‘we need snow plows’ and ‘not worth it’? The Ohio river, the Ken-tenn state line?