I like to take a moment and remind myself that Fukushima grade walls of water and paint-shaker magnitudes of earth tremors have to be kept in perspective.
Mexico is 3/5ths the size of the United States, and has I would believe a population equal to all the people living west of the Mississippi.
So tales of destruction in Mexico can be compared eyeball-to-eyeball with tales of destruction in the USA.
Afraid to drive the San Francisco Bay bridge because of visions of the quake of 1989?
Or park in Las Vegas in the Mandalay Bay lot?
Or visit downtown Manhattan?
It's exactly the same perspective.
What causes me to stay on my toes, are low awnings, terrible sidewalks, wet cobblestones, freshly mopped mirror glazed floor tile, sloppily maintained (and driven) big rigs, and drivers who are in a hurry to get nowhere in record time.
Prepping for natural disasters can take a lot out of the bite of discomfort, but frankly getting bit by a battalion of no-seem-ums is infinitely worse than getting awakened in the middle of the night temblor.
And to be utterly blunt about it, I would rather face a dozen crooked Mexican traffic cops versus one sharp eyed California Highway patrolman that happened to see my careless kissing of a double yellow line by my tire.
