It seems Mother Nature has something in store for everyone.
On Tuesday a rare occurrence happened on the East Coast — an earthquake hit and was felt from Maine to the nation’s capital and down into Georgia. The quake, which experts measured at 5.8, caused little physical damage. Instead it frightened people.
While some on the West Coast may find East Coasters to be overreacting, we learned a lesson — never trivialize any of nature’s extremes.
We find it ridiculous when people in other parts of the country express disdain over a slight “heat wave” that peaks at 85 degrees. They say it is worse than Arizona because of 70 percent humidity. And, honestly, 85 degrees with 70 percent humidity sounds like paradise when juxtaposed with brain-melting heat (it hit 115 degrees on Tuesday).
Other places laugh at us when Arizona gets rain. Valley residents seem to forget how to drive and spend more time hydroplaning. Let’s face it, seeing everyone on Facebook post, “It’s raining!” shows how unaccustomed we are to it.
Then there were the haboobs that warranted mentions on “The Colbert Report” and its own story in The New York Times. Those who have never experienced a haboob don’t know what it’s like to stare down a 3,000-foot wall of dust.
Of course, it’s the unknown, seldom used-word that caused problems.
“I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling this kind of storm a haboob. How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term that is clearly an Arizona phenomenon?” read a letter to the editor in The Arizona Republic on July 16. Never mind that alcohol, candy and lemon are words borrowed from Arabic. There are very few complaints about alcohol.
Tall dust and foreign terms do make life in this state quite complicated, but this is found all over the country. Those from the Northeast are no strangers to snow, but Valley residents have their world turned upside down when they go to Flagstaff during the winter.
People are afraid of what they rarely experience, including unexpected occurrences from Mother Nature.
So the once-in-a-blue-moon earthquake that occurred on the other side of the country does not deserve mockery, but rather gratitude that our fellow countrymen are safe.
