As I was watching all the Napa Earthquake coverage, it quickly took me back to the 89 Loma Prieta earthquake. I was sitting at my desk, we were in a temporary trailer as we were building an office right next door and the whole thing was rocking back and forth. As I ducked under my desk, I looked outside to see cars bouncing around then I turned my head to see monitors falling off my friends desk and a large clock ticking away seconds that lasted forever. When it was over, several of us inspected the site and starting repairing the building so we could make the next day’s shipments. Little did we know how big the earthquake was and the impact.
Fast forward back to today and the other thing that came to my mind is our Church and Annex. I’m not sure if you saw the news coverage but there was a church in Napa whose wall had become detached from the roof at its peak and was leaning towards the street. While our gym is built a different way, several of the planned seismic upgrades will strengthen our building by tying the walls together and then to the roof and glulams (the big wood beams that run the width of the gym). This will create one big solid box and increase the survivability of the gym/annex.
As I think of what could happen and the fact that the gym has been identified as an evacuation center for Jtown, it motivates me even more to get the Annex/Gym renovation done as soon as we can. While we missed the construction window for this year, I hope everyone will donate to the General campaign so we can start next August 2015.
In Gassho,
Todd
SEP