So there was a really small earthquake in downtown Portland tonight. It had a magnitude 2.6. These sort of earthquakes happen often, and they can hardly be felt and do not cause damage.

But that doesn’t stop the news stations from jumping all over the story. They had reporters reporting live from the epicenter, a place I happen to walk by frequently on my way to or from school. I suspect that the only reason they are even reporting on it is that the quake originated from downtown Portland where so many people (including the TV stations) are located and so the combined fuss from so many people made the story worth mentioning.

I live about 20 miles away from Portland, and I didn’t feel a thing. In fact, I would guess that if this quake happened in Southern California, that it wouldn’t even be mentioned, at least not like the news headline.

Now the real story is that we’ve been getting so much rain that some of the streets can’t drain the water fast enough that there is minor flooding. The rain is causing real damage, that is a real story, while the earthquake was just slightly unusual and thats it.

Oh, well. Let the Oregonians get all excited about their little earthquake.