Earthquake (Bolts)

"E" day at the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Charleston, South Carolina, lives under a triple threat of disaster:  earthquake,  hurricane and tsunami.  Actually, make it four - flood, too.

These people are survivors, and it shows in their historic buildings.

If you walk through downtown Charleston, you will see buildings with strange metal objects on the walls.  Everything in Charleston has a story, and these objects are no exception.

Here is one of these close up.  If you think they are decorations, you are only partially right.

On the afternoon of September 1, 1886 a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit Charleston.  Almost every building in the city was damaged, and damage extended as far north as Maine and as far west as Iowa.

Back in 1865, in the closing months of the United States Civil War, Union troops had burned down a lot of Charleston (the city where the war started).  Times had been hard.  Even by 1886, the city, and the people, didn't have many resources to rebuild.

So they did the next best thing.  They took the buildings, put them back together as best they could, and ran long iron rods through the walls for reinforcement.  The end plates, called gib plates, anchor the rods.  Many have a decorated cap and are decorated with lions heads, stars or even wings.

The Peter Bocquet House, above, dates from 1770 and would have been lost to history if not for what the people of Charleston had to do out of necessity.

Here's one more for you, on either side of the window above.

No one knows if these "earthquake bolts" will work until the next "big one" comes. 

The Great Reaction of 2011

Well, this was a change of plans.  I was going to blog about someone living in the midwest (outside the "crepe myrtle" zone).  Everyone told her no, crepe myrtles (a large shrub I've blogged about before) won't grow in your area.  But no, she tried it anyway.  And guess what.  Her crepe myrtle grew and she called it her "beautiful Says Who tree.

I was going to talk about how maybe I should go for it and try to grow a crepe myrtle, although I don't know what zone she lives in.  Microclimes can only help you out so much.

But today we had an earthquake, and it was a lot more exciting than the earthquake I blogged about last year.

No, wait,  it wasn't the earthquake that was so exciting.  It was everyone's reactions.

This isn't my first earthquake but it was the scariest by far.  I was at my desk at work when suddenly the building lurched and things on my desk started swaying back and forth.  Even after the pit in my stomach cleared up, a co-worker's bouquet kept vibrating.

I thought at first someone had rammed into the building (that actually happened once) but when the motion kept going, I realized it was an earthquake.

People evacuated at least one of the tall (if you can call a 10 or 11 story building "tall") buildings downtown.   I am, of course, writing of downtown Binghamton, NY.  And, thanks to the Internet, I soon knew that the earthquake was in - Virginia?  and only 5.9? I couldn't believe how we felt it here.  I still can't believe it.  I missed Twitter (the same Twitter I resisted joining for so long) because it is blocked at work.  Figured that would be the place to get my information.

When I got home, I found out just how much excitement I had missed, here in my little upstate NY enclave. Cell phone networks jammed.  The Capitol and Mall evacuated.  NYC buildings evacuated.  Commuter trains running slow.  The National Cathedral damaged.  A cousin in law in Texas posted on Facebook declaring he was praying for all of us.  (I did appreciate the prayers but, honest, we are OK.)  My friend in Tunisia posted on Facebook bragging about how nice the beaches were today there in earthquake-safe Tunisia.

My young adult son called.  Mom, did you feel it?  He (he works at night) was woken up.  Ever the scientist, he noticed how his TV was moving back and forth and then it suddenly changed motion and started to move side to side.  And then he left his mobile home just to be safe.  He's all prepared for natural disasters and childed me that I'm not.  He usually doesn't call just to chat, so it was nice to hear from him.

Well, it seems none of us in the Northeast are prepared for natural disasters. Earthquakes, anyway.

And now, for Hurricane Irene....