
Confronting New Madrid - gammarator
http://www.idlewords.com/2015/07/confronting_new_madrid.htm
======
jacquesm
During my stay in Bucharest I got to experience a very slight quake, that
wasn't centered anywhere near my location (the epicenter was 100's of km south
of where I was).

At first I thought I was becoming unwell, I couldn't focus on my computer
screen and I felt like falling. Then after a bit I realized it wasn't me but
the world (what really helped is that I noticed the lamps were swinging
relative to the building).

It only lasted for 30 seconds or so but I've never in my life felt more
disconcerted and panicky (whereas normally in a 'bad' situation I'm scarily
cool and composed because that's the way to get out of bad situations this hit
me in a much more primitive part of the brain).

All I could think of once I realized it was an earthquake was 'get out' which
given the general state of construction in Romania isn't a bad idea at all but
would have been a spectacularly dumb thing to do once the quake has started
because the staircases are amongst the most dangerous places.

Really odd feeling and I sincerely hope to never experience it again.

[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/201...](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2014/20140524.php)

[https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/470134804894470145](https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/470134804894470145)

I'm going back there in a couple of days and the feeling never quite left me
and I'm conscious of it when I'm indoors there.

It's pretty irrational given the chances of a really bad quake while I'm there
but Bucharest has had its share of really bad ones:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Vrancea_earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Vrancea_earthquake)

~~~
ido
This is somewhat amusing to hear for someone who lived in an area with
recurring earth quakes :)

It reminds me a bit of having visitors from Israel in Berlin - in Israel when
it rains beyond a trickle everyone goes inside to wait it out. This works
because it doesn't rain very often and when it does it doesn't usually last
very long.

Of course the same behavior in Berlin would mean you can't leave your home for
half the year, and my visitors were astound to see stuff like mothers walking
their baby strollers in the rain & general "normal life" activities taking
place during medium-intensity rain.

~~~
jacquesm
It was quite amusing to the others present too ;). I had the reverse happen in
IJmuiden, the Netherlands when some of the people from the Canadian office
were visiting and someone set off some fire-crackers. The Canadians hit the
deck as one and shouted 'drive-by, get down, drive-by!'...

~~~
tptacek
I think they were fucking with you.

~~~
jacquesm
Judging by the bruises they really weren't.

~~~
tptacek
People who live in places that actually have drive-by shootings (note:
probably does not include Canada) do not shout "hit the deck! drive-by!" when
they hear loud popping.

Gunshots don't really sound like fireworks. If you've ever been near angry
gunfire (even from a safe distance), you probably don't forget the difference.

My money remains on "they're fucking with you" but with the bruises added to
my priors, my backup is "you were hanging out with really dumb people".

~~~
nickpsecurity
I've lived in those places and agree. If anything, we'd have "wtf" looks on
our face trying to figure out what the sound was and which idiot was doing it.
If we hear gunshots, we make ourselves invisible while carefully assessing
source, distance, and whether we're the target. It's usually over before we
even do, we roll our eyes, and go back out our business. Sometimes, you'll see
such people mock suburban type's chaotic reactions to situations that normally
don't happen in their sleepy towns. Mostly, we just don't care if gunfire is
happening so long as the bullets aren't coming at us.

Now, moving from an area with lots of drive-by's to an area with redneck
neighbors spontaneously shooting in their backyards was an adjustment. Lol...

~~~
jessaustin
Do you perceive more danger from the drive-by's or from the rednecks?

~~~
nickpsecurity
Far as shooting, there was little danger from either so long as you don't
antagonize them. The drive-by's were more dangerous in terms of stray bullets
given rednecks were in rural areas and tended to shoot in directions without
many homes. In terms of face-to-face, rednecks are worse as I've never had a
drive-by targeted at me but plenty of rednecks made up a reason in their head
to start some stuff. And they're usually tough and have back-up with more than
9's. Fortunately, they'll shout or fight 10x more often than they'd shoot so
I've never had to use a weapon on them other than these knuckles.

Best to avoid the worst of both rednecks and people in the hood. That said,
plenty of rednecks and people in the hood are alright day-to-day. Some are
pretty awesome. I had plenty of fun with and learned plenty from both types of
people. Hood rats taught how to hustle better. Rednecks taught me how to shoot
more interesting guns. ;)

------
jessaustin
Remember, it's pronounced "njuːˈmædrɨd". I don't think TFA will win any prizes
from the Illinois Office of Tourism. It's fine to decry riverfront casino
architecture or the unpleasant monotony of driving through Illinois (although
I suspect he's never transited Kansas or Texas), but how can you talk about
old buildings in Cahokia and not mention the Mounds?

~~~
tptacek
Also a great Uncle Tupelo song (they repeatedly pronounce it for you!):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CGkuLEs5U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CGkuLEs5U)

Briefly the name of my new company, too.

~~~
beat
I was going to post that song, but you beat me to it!

------
ableal
_" Growing up in Illinois filled me with such a longing to escape that it's
hard to imagine someone wanting to live here. [...] The passengers have the
haunted, vacant look of people who have just taken an Illinois road trip.
[...]"_

Hmm. I heard from another native about the snow pile in the mall parking lot
being the tallest hill for many miles around, but he did not seem too fazed by
that.

 _" If you enjoyed this post, send me to Antarctica!"_

That seems a bit harsh.

(OK, OK, the funding includes a return trip.)

P.S. Was puzzled by _' our front passenger points at a row of low hills and
says, with a big smile on her face, “Karsty!”. The car shakes with
laughter.'_; a search found me this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst) ,
which I suppose will have to do.

------
nickpsecurity
Entertaining and terrifying article. Now I get to loose a bit more sleep on
this. (sighs) Going to pass that favor along by forwarding the link to other
inhabitants of this power keg (read: death trap) that is the Mid-South.

More seriously, the situation isn't unknown over here. Many of us are told
what happened as campfire stories and such. Running the "Mighty Mississippi"
backwards plus creating Realfoot Lake [1] left us in shock and awe. Especially
after fishing at Realfoot. Then we tried to calm down by asking when the next
one is coming and what they did to prevent us from being buried in rubble. The
answers... didn't calm us down one bit... The New Madrid fault's potential is
so devastating that people either leave the area or just put it out of their
mind until some asshole writes another article lol.

The worst thing is we have bad storms, tornados, and potential for a major
earthquake. The protections against the first two tend to make the other one
worse. And vice versa. Tapei 101 has an interesting solution but Mighty Madrid
would probably throw that sucker right out of the ground (or sink it). Not
being in the area is literally the only safe strategy. I just hope the Big One
doesn't hit during one of the many tornado invasions...

[1]
[http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3713836](http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3713836)

~~~
beat
In the mid-1980s, I was at Grinnell College in Iowa. One summer, there was a
tornado warning - one on the ground, a couple miles away from campus. A bunch
of students visiting from California for some academic thing ran out to the
soccer field to watch. The native midwesterners like me told them to get
inside NOW (we didn't mention that the part of campus they were on was
completely destroyed by a tornado in the 1920s). One sneered, "Hah! You've
never lived through an earthquake!" I told him that I won't go into the
basement of a brick building during an earthquake if he won't stand in an open
field during a tornado. Then I went to the basement, because I'm not stupid.
Dunno if they did or not.

~~~
nickpsecurity
Lmao that's hilarious. "Hey, it's one of those things that put objects through
brick walls and fling trailers through the air. Let's get close to it!" I
nominate them for At-Risk Survivor status on Darwin Award page.

~~~
beat
Yeah, seriously. Native midwesterners (I grew up in central Illinois, in a
nasty tornado alley) take tornadoes seriously. They were new on campus, or
they'd know that the dorms they walked out of to go see the tornado were built
because the previous dorms had been destroyed by a tornado.

~~~
nickpsecurity
I have so many tornado stories from Tennessee and Mississippi it isn't funny.
My mom says I was jerked off the ground (in her hand) by one when I was a kid
but I must've blocked it out. One time we were in the trailer in the
bathroom... wishful survival thinking I know... when she got sucked into the
vent she was laying on due to air pressure, vacuum, or something. My dad had
to pull her off it. Another time at school some people wanted to get to their
family [against our recommendations] but two people couldn't pull the door
open against the tornado's winds forcing it shut. Another time was a storm
rather than tornado with 90mph windows that had me practically crawling to the
house, garbage cans rolling down streets, and cars barely keeping on their
path. Most recent was when we lost our shed to either a tornado or intense
storm. I was temporarily living somewhere else & can't recall details except
to say there's no trace of it in the backyard lol. House is fine, though,
except for constant roof work.

So, I was thinking on these underground houses as a potential solution to that
and then there's this article on New Madrid fault... (sighs)

------
dmethvin
What a great writer, and the article seems well researched. I note that he's
got a Kickstarter to go to Antarctica, just chipped in for that.

~~~
Loughla
While I understand his humorous writing style, this:

"always attributed this to Midwesterners being a more seismically sensitive
people, perhaps due to their vast bulk, but the difference is a matter of
objective fact."

Made me stop reading. There is a difference between mocking a place for
comedy, and mocking a people for comedy. One is observational, one is just
mean.

~~~
tptacek
As a stereotypically bulky midwesterner, I appreciated the attention to
detail.

He was definitely making a point of being mean to Illinois, with all the flair
of someone who's never spent more than a day or so in Indiana. But (a) he grew
up here, so he's entitled and (b) it's not like people are any nicer to the
horrid overstuffed tech prospecting camp he lives in now.

~~~
beat
As a central Illinois native, I know not to spend more than a day or so in
Indiana if I can possibly avoid it. I'm right there with the writer on the
need to escape as soon as you can, although I never made it farther than
Minnesota.

(Incidentally, I love Minneapolis with my whole heart - it's all the good of
the midwest with very little of the bad)

~~~
tptacek
Yeah, but he grew up in the Ferris Bueller suburbs of Chicago, not corn
country. So while I sympathize with your urgent need to escape, in his case I
think it's a symptom of (perhaps mild) dysfunction.

~~~
pw
What sort of dysfunction?

~~~
tptacek
The "being a big old jerk face" dysfunction.

------
pronoiac
The author's from the area, so he probably was around when Iben Browning[1]
made predictions of a 6.5-7.5 magnitude earthquake in December 1990. The
predictions made international news, and then punchlines.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iben_Browning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iben_Browning)

------
mayneack
My mother works for the Red Cross in mid MO. Within the last year, I believe,
they had a massive multi-state training scenario for a large quake on that
fault. It's definitely as close to worst case scenario as MO natural disasters
go.

