"In grammar school they taught me that a frog turning into a prince was a fairy tale. In the university they taught me that a frog turning into a prince was a fact!" -Ron Carlson
A 7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of northern California about an hour ago. Didn't feel it down here, but now we're under a tsunami warning. I was watching TV when the sound cut out and the warning thing started scrolling across the top of the screen. I have two complaints about that. First of all, it makes things seem a heck of a lot more important than they actually are. I came online to find out more, and the earthquake is only a little blurb on the local news sites, and no mention of a tsunami warning. So obviously it's not that big a threat. Secondly, if whoever it is that decides when to issue these weather warnings and such overreacts (or is merely being cautious), so much so that during the unusually heavy rains last winter those warnings were coming regularly for floods and even thunderstorms (which never occurred), then why the heck didn't they use it during the October 2003 wildfires?? It would've been mighty usefull then, to inform people of the latest evacuations and information, since the local news bimbettes were of no use whatsoever in that regard. In a genuine emergency, all the emergency contingency plans went out the window, or seemed to at any rate. Great. On the other hand, that probably means I have no reason to fear a tsunami. If one were actually coming, we probably wouldn't get any warning, if past performance by the emergency broadcast system is anything to go by.
