Wildfires and Zombie Attacks

The wildfires in southern California have been on my mind this week. It's hard for me to comprehend what a city goes through in a natural disaster situation, whether it's a fire, a hurricane, or an earthquake. The shock of destruction. The evacuation. The worrying. The lack of safety. The looting.

I have often felt fortunate to live in Portland. We don't have wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, flash floods, tsunamis, acid rain, smog, or major earthquakes. I'm trying to think what major disasters we do have...

We do get a tiny earthquake every now and then, but it's the kind that most people sleep through. (Then the next day at work, people talk about having a dream about an earthquake--oh, no way, you had that same dream too?)

We also get a volcanic eruption every 150 years or so, but we should be okay for my lifetime, because Mt. St. Helens has already happened. I'm willing to play the numbers on this one. (I did take three Geology/Rocks for Jocks classes in college.)

We get tiny mudslides when it rains too much, but they only affect a couple people's route to work in the morning. I really can't think of anything, on a grand scale, that's devastating to the whole Portland community.

My coworker, Ben, reminded me that Portland is still highly susceptible to zombie attacks. True, true.