That's right, the New Madrid!  And I only know that because of Tim McCarver,
of all people.

Most people probably know McCarver as the chatty know-it-all ex-jock analyst
on Fox baseball broadcasts, but for around fourteen years, he was on the New
York Mets broadcast team, and he was wonderful.   I still basically like
McCarver, but the national stage has  kind of de-colored him, leaving only
the annoying bits.  Not only did he know a lot about baseball, and giuve
fascinating insights into the tactics of the game (and tell great stories
about Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton), but he had all kind of other nerdy
fascinations, too, and he would somehow work it into the game.  He was the
first person I ever heard talk about El Nino and La Nina.  And because he
was from Tennessee, when there was seismic activity in the Bay Area (like in
'89) he would remind everybody that the biggest quake in the contiguous US
states had happened in 1812, on the New Madrid fault.  The Mississippi River
changed directions!

???

No, the 1989 quake that Theresa was referring to was in the San Francisco
(and also Santa Cruz) area, and it was huge - 7.1. *Lots* of damage,
many deaths. (Although miraculously, far fewer than one might think.
Fewer than 100 people died, in an area where millions of people live.)

Quite a few homes in San Francisco had big fires, many collapsed. One
bridge was out of commission, and a large section of freeway collapsed
on top of motorists during rush hour. In Santa Cruz, the entire downtown
area was wrecked and had to be rebuilt.

That year the World Series (a misnomer, since it involves only the US -
we're talking baseball here) was played between two Bay Area teams, and
the game was about to begin at the many-times-renamed Candlestick Park.
So there was a lot of media around, including cameras on helicopters and
a blimp. Because of that, the rest of us (I still lived in Massachusetts
at the time) got reports and images of the quake before people who lived
here knew exactly what had happened. Power was out, phone lines were
jammed, it was impossible to find out the real story if you were here.

I don't know about an Anaheim quake - was that recent? There was a big
one in LA in 1994, called the Northridge quake, that also did a lot of
damage.

Joyce

Most of the time, it's a great if expensive place to live. Every now
and then though, it can give you the shakes. =o) But major
earthquakes, fortunately, come around less often than major
hurricanes.

Melissa