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With Tremors Still Possible Shouldn't We Stay Away From Buildings? MARK GUYDISH OPINION

Friday October, 17 2008 | 02:27 AM

Anyone else feel that subtle tremor in the South-central part of the state Thursday?

It was the kind of tremor that could knock down buildings. With so much damage assessment still being done, it seems like we should be a bit more cautious about getting right back to our normal lives. Well, at least the head of Pennyslvania Emergency Management Agency agrees with me on this. Today PEMA put out a warning about staying away from multi-level buildings, parking garages, rail cars, and overpasses whenever possible.

Maybe it's just me. But when I get such a warning I take it seriously. After the devestation that we've seen in the past two weeks, it's easy to imagine another building collapsing, another bridge falling, another million dollars worth of damage to add to the bill.

On the positive side, emergency workers and damage assessment teams have stepped up efforts since returning yesterdy. Unfortunately, some of them were still helping with Hurricane Ike recovery in Texas while the rest were in the Pittsburgh area helping them recover from an earthquake.

Let's just hope we don't become the San Francisco of the east...at least not while the Phillies are playing at home this World Series. Great...now we will.

Just wait and See.

About the Author

Mark Guydish covers education for the Times Leader. Reach him at (570) 970-7161 or mguydish@timesleader.com.

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.