Image via WikipediaAdd this to your list of things you never thought you'd see: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake, centered in Virginia, shook up much of the East Coast from Georgia to Canada. There were millions of dollars in damages. Monuments and buildings in New York and Washington had to be evacuated. No one was injured.Californians, who see this all the time while waiting for "The Big One", have been having a good laugh at the expense at the Easterners' expense. What's not so hilarious is that this comes on the heels of the Japanese earthquake in March, which caused a tsunami and a nuclear emergency with thousands dead. And we are approaching the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, so who can blame Easterners for being jittery?
The last time an earthquake of this magnitude hit the East Coast, it was 1944. Do you suppose that, once the rumbling started back then, some people thought Hitler's Luftwaffe was bombing the mainland?
Fortunately for the country, President Barack Obama and Congress were both away from Washington on vacation. Criticize them all you like for taking time off when most Americans can't even afford to take one day off. Can you imagine what would have happened if they had stayed in D.C. when the quake hit?
The news media, based in New York and Washington, were all over this story like a cheap suit, crowding out such needless trivia as the Libyan civil war, the famine in Somalia and Kim Kardashian's wedding. Heck, Fox News reported that a tsunami was NOT imminent. At least they didn't blame the quake on the President or Al Qaeda.
But now East Coast residents and the TV networks must turn their attention to a potential disaster they're more familiar with. Hurricane Irene is about to pay a visit.
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