Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Getting the jitters - again

I got up about 4am this morning to the tune of a thunderstorm approaching from the northwest. I always pull the plugs on computers and modems during electrical storms even though we have a surge protector in the meter box and household insurance. It seems to me to be a much more convenient proposition to pull the plugs.

Naturally we went a bit jittery. I think my heart rate went up a bit as the storm approached - my brain was thinking about our tornado experience three years ago. However there was no tornado this time, just a lot of rain.

The terrible Sechuan earthquake in China has gotten into our minds too. I've seen a figure of 70,000 plus killed, and a quarter of a million injured. I think these are still guesses. The scale of the catastrophe has been so immense. In moments alone here I've found myself contemplating the house we live in and wondering how well it would survive a significant earthquake.

Fortunately we don't experience a lot of damaging seismic activity here. The last major event which gave a decent shake to the Perth-Fremantle was on 14 October 1968. It became known as the Meckering earthquake because the epicentre was well inland. Meckering was a rural area with a sparsely distributed population. Lucky in a way because it notched up 6.9 on the Richter scale. The Sechuan quake was 7.9.

No one was killed in the Meckering event, but 20 people were injured. Click here for some old press clippings and photos.

Whenever there is a major shake somewhere in the world our local newspaper The West Australian usually mentions Meckering There's another rehashed story in this morning's edition. It says the survivors are organising a 40th anniversary celebration this year. The contact phone number is 96251318.

Here's a Google Earth image of the 1968 epicentre:

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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