Shake, rattle and roll in Nor Cal

May 23, 2013

By Katy Grimes

Earthquake! Tonight in Sacramento, we felt the rumblings of a 5.7 earthquake centered in in Greenville, CA, in Plumas County — 300 miles from Sacramento.

This is considered a moderate earthquake. So far, there have been 13 small aftershocks reported.

This is a rare occurrence in Sacramento; we normally don’t feel the seismic activity in the state.

Within moments, friends on Facebook were posting about it. It only took two minutes for an insurance agent to encourage everyone to buy earthquake insurance.

One of my good friends said she was glad her wine did not spill.

Fortunately, it appears that the only damage may to be a few broken pictures. But local television news channels are acting as if Hurricane Sandy just swept through the north state. Local news shows have taken over all network programing, interrupting regular shows, blathering on and on about nothing. One station interviewed the same two college girls over and over again — one girl felt it, the other did not. Wow.

The 24-hour news cycle is bad — they are desperate to find a disaster. Local news stations have been taking phone calls from Greenville, Susanville, and Chester, CA residents who are reporting the broken pictures. One station sent out a reporter to interview local people who felt the tremor. Most people didn’t feel it. But the news people are behaving as if it’s the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

The news people are even interviewing each other about what they felt.

Greenville residents reported walls shook, tables moved, “trinkets have fallen off shelves…” and my hanging pots and pans clanged. Some Greenville residents had minor damage, but remember the area is near Mount Lassen, a dormant volcano. Anything could happen.

Potential damage — “moderate” according to the United States Geological Survey.

My favorite Facebook comment was Harmeet Kaur Dhillon in San Francisco: “Quitcherbellyachin’ people. 5.7 is peanuts.”