And people are afraid of earthquakes (registration required)?
Shrieking winds and angry sheets of rain thrashed Florida's coast on Saturday as residents hunkered down in crowded shelters or in their barricaded homes to ride out the plodding, sprawling Hurricane Frances. Hurricane-force winds were reported by midday Saturday and by early evening the edge of the storm's massive eye had reached landfall.In quake country, usually you don’t have to load up all your precious possessions (like your hard drive) and go live in a shelter for days (not unless you live in Iran). Nor do you usually have to contemplate returning to a pile of ruin where your house used to be. Nor do quakes last for three stinking days, sitting on top of your state comfortably, swirling up everything in its path and gaining power.
Then there are the floods.
Now that I’ve said all that, we’ll probably have a big one here, 6.0+. Okay, I retract it. Just be safe, Floridians and whoever else Hurricane Frances has in its sites.

