I'm going to PL a bit and tell you all about the '89 earthquake in SF, which is the only thing close like this I experienced. SF is a a strange place as far as earthquakes go because some of it is on solid bedrock and other parts are on landfill. Solid bedrock is what me and my mom were living on. Our home got shook up hard and we had damage but the structural integrity of the house held up; nevertheless we slept outside for a week due to the aftershocks. along with out neighbors. Not far away a section that was built over a filled in creek was heavily damaged and eventually condemned.
Electricity everywhere was hosed. We didn't have it. Traffic lights didn't work. Landlines were out and very few people had those brick cell phones (this was a couple of years before Desert Storm for the young'uns). Our only information came from radios or from someone who had a small portable TV. There wasn't internet as we know it now so no normies were online and since there was no electricity it made no difference.
My dad was living in a building that was on solid bedrock but everything a couple of blocks away was landfill, and those parts were not only gone, sinking into the ground and in pieces, homes caught fire due to the old wood gas mains. I went by a couple of days later to see how he was doing. Driving through the city was nightmare. Parts of it were fine, other parts looked like a bombs had destroyed whole sections. My dad told me (his landline was fine for some reason) he had no water so I stopped by a school which was a disaster relief center to pick up a couple of cases of water donated by Budweiser and bread. It had only been two days but the place was full of donated clothing, water and food. I grabbed some clothes for myself because I was wearing a fifties satin and chiffon dress, which was the only clean thing I had because it had been packed in a truck, not hanging up in a closet with plaster all over it. Some reporter thought it was hilarious (fucking journos were scum even then). He told me parts of Oakland were hit hard and that sections of the MacArthur freeway had collapsed as well as a section of the Bay Bridge. I was surprised how much had been donated in such a short time.
The Loma Prieta earthquake lasted less than eight minutes.
FEMA came by and cut me and my mom some decent money. People donated more stuff than anyone could use. Eventually I learned Oakland across the bay had been severely hit, especially the poor black area of West Oakland. No one really helped them, mostly because no one wanted to go near them. A lot of people didn't get anything from FEMA. It was all poor SF, so beautiful, so terrible.
The Red Cross was useless and used the earthquake to fundraise. FEMA helped some but not others. People all over the country and even the world donated tons of clothing, food and materials, which most of these organizations hoarded and then sold. I tell you this because the best thing we can do is raise some money, on our own, to help people out, and not give to the United Way or the Red Cross, because they aren't going to give it out consistently and fairly. Or help people rebuild.
Some of the comments on Twitter and even on KF (fuck you Menotaur) from people gloating over rednecks and Trump supporters suffering disgust me. I don't understand people like that because my first impulse is to see what I can do to help, not blame them or gloat over this horrible tragedy. Some people lost everything, they lost loved ones, their lives are wrecked.
Anyone here going out to help, let me know and send me a PM. Everyone else else making catty remarks about Trump supporting rednecks, go fuck yourself.
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