I think it's more the fact that I wouldn't dream of telling someone who lost everything that it was in fact a 6.2 and not a 6.5. I'm not saying that you would do that, and I know I'm a bit put out by the fact that I have family in the path of the current hurricane. Still, just the fact that it's an issue to do that kind of pendantry with big disasters rubs me wrong.

Deb, for the record, Dylan's best friend lives in Houston, and I really hope he and his wife and kid are on the road north to stay with his family in Tulsa. We're worried about them. But that doesn't turn off my pedantic/scientific side. Nothing ever does, frankly. I probably do need to watch how I use it, especially when I've only been skimming a thread and therefore might not be fully aware of the context and tone of what's gone before.

I probably do need to watch how I use it

I think that's wise, especially at the moment - because the disasters are piling on, one after the other, and a lot of people are likely to lose something or someone, if they haven't already.

I learned how to do a basic storm map read a long time ago, because I was down in NOLA and left the day before Camille hit. I'm not immune to the interest level of the scales.

But if, while I was huddled in the doorway during Loma Prieta, and shelves and appliances were crashing down around me, and I was suddenly remembering that my ten year old daughter was alone across town, someone had walked into my kitchen and told me "hey, it's only a 7.1", I'd have probably throttled them.

So much attention is put on the point of landfall. The storm is several hundred miles away from me, and yet if I look up I see the clouds. The homeowner 150 miles away from the center that gets a tree in the middle of the living room isn't going to care that they didn't see the eye. This storm is some scary shit.

No doubt lives will be saved because of all the media about Katrina.

But if, while I was huddled in the doorway during Loma Prieta, and shelves and appliances were crashing down around me, and I was suddenly remembering that my ten year old daughter was alone across town, someone had walked into my kitchen and told me "hey, it's only a 7.1", I'd have probably throttled them.

But that's not what I'm saying, not at all, and I apologize if it came across that way.

However, if we had an earthquake right now, as soon as I grabbed Annabel, rode it out, and made sure Dylan was OK, the first thing I'd want to know was which fault it'd been on and what the magnitude was, and even while I was trying to work out the structural integrity of the house and decide whether it was safe to stay, my mind would be whirling to put it in some kind of scientific and historical context compared to other quakes in Seattle and around the world. That's just the way I am. And I guess that's my problem. It's so natural to me that despite observational knowledge to the contrary, I have trouble wrapping my brain around the idea that anyone wouldn't be thinking of it on that level.

No doubt lives will be saved because of all the media about Katrina.

Man I hope so. Pity they couldn't have shown any competence for Katrina in the first place. Wonder if FEMA will have to fill out forms in triplicate to the completely inept DoHS overlords on this one?

However, if we had an earthquake right now, as soon as I grabbed Annabel, rode it out, and made sure Dylan was OK, the first thing I'd want to know was which fault it'd been on and the magnitude, and even while I was trying to work out the structural integrity of the house and decide whether it was safe to stay, my mind would be whirling to put it in some kind of scientific and historical context compared to other quakes in Seattle and around the world. That's just the way I am.

Heh. No, I get it. But I do think you're wise to be careful about indulging it out loud without that explanation right now; it's a real-world situation and why court the reaction from those affected if it isn't immediately needed?

I wanted to know what fault Loma Prieta was on, because it helps to gauge the likelihood of aftershocks. The interest there had practical immediacy for me. It was very odd, sitting out in the garden and BBQing because no one who knows SF history would dream of turning on a gas stove after a big quake, the entire city dark, and the sky crimson over the Marina, where fires had broken out.

I understand the statistical fascination Susan. We get so much detail on the local news about the meteorological data that we get to be experts. It is way more detailed than the weather channel. In the past when I have evacuated and listened to national weather I was frustrated with the superficial statistics.

The emotional factors and the academic elements are not the same thing.

However, if we had an earthquake right now, as soon as I grabbed Annabel, rode it out, and made sure Dylan was OK, the first thing I'd want to know was which fault it'd been on and the magnitude, and even while I was trying to work out the structural integrity of the house and decide whether it was safe to stay, my mind would be whirling to put it in some kind of scientific and historical context compared to other quakes in Seattle and around the world. That's just the way I am.

That's pretty much how we dealt with the Nisqually quake at work.

Well, after all the Californians stopped shouting out their best guesses as to the magnitude and we'd evacuated the building, that is. (Yes, I sat next to Engineering.)

Of course, when I finally got home (knowing I wouldn't see Paul, who still worked in news at the time, much for several days), I dealt with it by applying a the contents of a bottle of red wine to self while watching a scrambled Eminem concert on Pay-Per-View.

I find both approaches soothing when under stress.

The emotional factors and the academic elements are not the same thing.

Definitely not. They're coming out of different areas of the brain. But, they don't preclude each other. Just, not too many people can be both simultaneously. So, yeah, definitely have to be careful where we step during ongoing emergencies.