As always, today was a tough choice as to what the list should be about. We had the great London Beer Flood competing with Al Capone being found guilty of Tax Evasion but also Mother Teresa winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But in the end, I picked an event that I actually was in the middle of back in 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake. This 6.9 earthquake hit at a pretty good time as far as earthquakes go, on a day when people were leaving work early to catch the World Series, myself included. The earthquake woke people up as to the dangers quakes pose to the roads and bridges in the state. With major roads closed for a month (some as long as 7 years) the commute changed significantly for residents in the area (ferry service across the bay was restarted after being shut down decades earlier and still continues as well as a 90,000 rider per week increase for Bart, Bay Area Rapid Transit). With 60+ people dying, thousands injured and left homeless, it was rather nerve wracking to hear geologist claim it wasn’t even the big one. So today, courtesy of the USGS.Gov’s information, we are looking at the 10 most powerful earthquakes to hit the US (of which 3 of them make the top ten list for the World!). If you have a chance, check out the wikipedia entries for these quakes, especially for the Prince William Sound and the New Madrid quakes.

1. Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964 9.2

2. Cascadia subduction zone 1700 ˜9

3. Rat Islands, Alaska 1965 8.7

4. Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1957 8.6

5. East of Shumagin Islands, Alaska 1938 8.2

6. Unimak Islands, Alaska 1946 8.1

7. New Madrid, Missouri 1811 8.1

8. Yakutat Bay, Alaska 1899 8.0

9. New Madrid, Missouri 1812 ˜8

10. Denali Fault, Alaska 2002 7.9

Here’s hoping that the earthquakes will stay off this list for awhile, but if the earth must wiggle a bit, let’s hope it does so away from the cities.

Anyone who lives where earthquakes occur more often than once a year knows this name.  The Richter scale to measure earthquakes was developed by Charles Richter in 1935.  It is interesting to note there is no upper limit on the scale, however, no earthquake has ever been measured higher than a 9.5 that happened in 1960 so many people assume the scale only goes to 10.  While everyone knows earthquakes occur around the Pacific Rim (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Japan, etc.), the news has been filled lately with quakes near Chicago and Reno.  In addition, one of the biggest earthquakes in the US was centered in Missouri and felt all the way to Boston.  So it probably wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for an Earthquake wherever you might live.  In California, Earthquake kits sell quickly right after good sized quakes and the Red Cross has started selling nice Emergency Kits for everyone.  These kits are a good idea but certainly don’t need to cost 70 bucks or so when you can put one together yourself for less.  So Today’s list is the 10 best things to have in an Emergency Kit.  We’ll assume you already have a little backpack to keep it in and we’ll go from there.

1.  Water.  Enough drinking water for a couple of days.

2. Energy Bars.  To keep you moving.  High Protein.

3. Flashlight, and extra batteries -  you might want to see what you are stepping on at night.

4. Battery powered Radio (or a crank one) and some extra batteries).  Sometimes, this is the only way to find out what is going on.

5. Work Gloves – Heavy Duty, for working around broken glass.

6. First Aid Kit (pain killers, band aids, etc.) -  For obvious reasons.

7. Breathing Mask – Earthquakes and Tornado’s can both leave an incredible amount of dust in the air for sometime.

8. Jacket or small blanket -  It’s always good to be comfortable.

9. Duct Tape and Baling Wire -  can be used for just about anything, holding things together, propping stuff up.

10.  Tools - a good claw hammer, heavy duty screw driver, pliers and an adjustable wrench can come in handy.

There are dozens of websites that provide good earthquake preparedness information including the USGS and the Red Cross, check them out.  John James Audubon was born on this day as well, maybe next year will be a list of the 10 best places to bird watch, we’ll see.