21 year warning

There was a rumor flying around the fifth grade today that CBS reported that there would be an earthquake in the Bay Area today at 4:00 pm. Naturally, they were concerned. I assured them that this was not possible. Bryan’s rebuttal was that he heard it on TV! 

So I was losing. I told them again that there was no way to predict an earthquake—but then I remembered this story I had just heard on NPR this morning (maybe this was a mix-up). 

“Do you mean the earthquake in China?? Because scientists did sort of predict that one, because there was a fore-quake, like a small earthquake that comes right before a big one.”

(No, no, this news story was about a quake that was scheduled for around afternoon-recess time, in San Francisco)

“Well, there would be no way for scientists to predict that, because we haven’t had a fore-shock.”

Dawud excitedly interjects, “Yuh-huh!! There was too an earthquake here! In 1989! That was the fore-shock!”

Anyways, he might be right. gotta stock up on bottled water, like the universities are doing, despite their budget. I already have enough canned food to keep me fat for a month (Grandma always sends me home with spam, corn, and some type of bean). I’ve got my iPhone…I just need a first aid kit and some CashMoney (one word, as published in the student-authored earthquake safety guide given out at my school), and I should be good.