starchasm comments

The earthquake wasn't as bad as it could have been, being the first and only time I had ever experienced an earthquake, I was more scared than anything. As a resident of NC, I'm lucky that hurricane Irene barely missed my area. Though I truly feel for those who chose to stay despite evacuation orders. However, hurricanes are not at all uncommon in this area, so we've had time to prepare for emergency situations, and I trust that residents here are using their best judgement when choosing to stay. Whereas the northern states that fall within hurricane Irene's trajectory are not as accustomed to the same level of preparedness in terms of hurricane conditions. Even with the hurricane slowly weakening, there's a great deal of water still to be dispersed, and the fact that this hurricane is huge and slow-moving, it carries significant potential to produce hazardous conditions despite a noticeable drop in wind speed. I certainly hope this is not the case, but i do hope everyone is prepared in the event of such a scenario.

Something that i read earlier in an article from NASA that according to a theoretical calculation performed by a NASA research scientist based on estimates from the United States Geological survey; the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred just off the coast of Japan may have shifted the earth's "Figure Axis" (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by about 17 centimeters (or 6.5 inches). If so, this could explain the weather here in the southern states of the U.S. I do have my own theory as to how this could be connected to climate change, (perhaps the glaciers melting from densely packed ice into free flowing liquid caused the weight of the earth to shift), however I'm no scholar, and I'm straying off topic. As a resident of southern U.S, I can say that as far as i can remember, my town has seen only one instance of a tornado, that is, before these recent storms. Now that i have seen these terrible storms, and the giant storm cells dance across my television screen as it broadcasts a message that i am to seek shelter, i do wonder, where am i to go? The article made a clear point, and the fact is, that we are not prepared. of course no one is fully prepared in terms of nature, however the southeastern states do not seem as prepared against tornadoes as the Midwestern states, whether or not it is a lack of sustainable shelters and structures, or a lack of tornado drills and storm protocols and procedures that i find as the basis for my reasoning. Either way, we must learn to adapt to our surroundings in an effort to survive, my heart and my prayers go out to those who have lost their lives and to those who have survived and those who continue to survive the circumstances seen globally.