Haiti, Island Paradise - Earthquake Zone

Living in California, I came to believe that places like the Carribean were immune to earthquakes. Haiti's 7 yesterday led me to realize this was just not the case.

A Magnitude Seven earthquake is huge. A magnitude 4.5 shook me out of bed and could have thrown me to the floor. An eight would have almost detonated the ground. A seven is a very, very big quake.

The day before, there was a 6.5 that happened off the Coast of California. Are the two related?

Here's hoping everyone there in Haiti are going to be ok. Haiti is a poor nation, and such events are probably not going to be easily survivable. You don't have alot of safety net at the lowest rung of the economic ladder - the least little thing can tip you into starvation and chaos. The government is focussing on Food and Medical care. Rightly so.

And so, America will send a hospital ship and provide it, free. This is a clue, to anyone still wondering if we should go forward with real healthcare reform. A real National Health Service would only clarify how we feel about ourselves, and make life easier for everyone. We are a good nation. A caring nation. The medical treatment of the poor, and the wounded - is a first priority for anyone. Most doctors these days care for such people and have to write it off, given the massive numbers of the uninsured in our country.

We normally don't think of Haiti as sliding into the ocean like San Francisco, but a magnitude seven is a big mother . Its bigger than any Earthquake in California in at least 15 years. 20? I think there was one back in the late '80's that collapsed the Oakland Bay Bridge (which was cheaply built, anyway) but that was just a 6.5 wasn't it?