STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

The 7.8 Nepal Earthquake kills at least 5000.
In 1994, this blogger was literally in the middle of the Infamous 6.6 Northridge Earthquake in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. It was terrifying! At the time, I was out in Hollywood consulting on an Oliver Stone film, starring Al Pacino. That night I went to sleep at the Vagabond Inn and at 4:30:55 A.M  pacific coast time, I felt a huge vibration that shook the wooden framed lodging.  For a moment, I cursed the large trucks that were driving near by on the 405 Highway heading south into Los Angeles.

However, I quickly realized that the thunderous noise and the collapsing Inn were the beginning of a major earthquake. I did not stand in the doorway for protection as it is often prescribed. Instead, I ran out of the motel and went to the rented car, a large Cadillac, for which I had ‘mysteriously’ packed the night before. I say mysteriously because that was the first time in my professional life, I had not packed what little clothing I had just before I was to fly out at 11AM.

As I rushed out of the door, I encountered what I can best describe as a scene from Armageddon. The concrete beneath my feet cracked open in a wide yawn revealing flames and smoke spewing from the bowels of the pipes buried beneath the street. At the same time, live electrical wires from the overhanging telephone poles were whipping around the smoke-filled air.

I saw one police cruiser passing by with its searchlight beaming a bright light through the debilitating rancid smoke that quickly consumed what little oxygen was left. I rushed into my rented car, set on getting to the Los Angeles Airport at all cost, betting on one simple fact. I convinced myself that the different airlines which flew out of LA Airport would not leave their $40M planes on the tarmac.  I had a first class ticket, I would board whichever plane that flew out of LA to whatever destination they would take; be it China or NYC.

It was extremely dangerous driving to the airport. First I drove in the middle of the 405 Freeway as I noticed lesser sized cars than my behemoth Cadillac peeling off to the sides of the highway as the road started to buckle in front and behind me. I turned off the air conditioner because smoke from the burning buildings that I was passing had entered the air conditioning system. I was choking throughout the minutes or however long that trip took to get to Century Blvd which led to the Alamo Rental car then onto the LA Airport.

As I approached Century Blvd, I noticed a police barricade placed in front of the exit ramp. I decided that I would swerve around the barricade and try to get to Century Blvd and then Aviation Blvd at whatever cost; even if it meant I would enter a police chase or an arrest. I managed to swerve around the police barricade without injuring myself or any LA police and proceeded by rote to Century Blvd.  Next, I turned onto Aviation Blvd and then into the Alamo which had, ironically, the only lights on in the entire LA block that I was traversing.

I asked the bus driver to get me to the airport ASAP.  Of course, I gave him a significant tip; and finally I reached the United counter where the lovely lady informed me that I should head back to my hotel. I explained to her that I would not leave the airport and that I would pay extra for any United Flight that would take off any time soon.

As serendipity would have it, I boarded the next flight out of LA on First Class of an almost completely empty plane back to Washington D. C.---my original destination. When the attractive stewardess came up to me and asked me what I would have for breakfast as I watched the plane take off from a seemingly buckling tarmac, I replied “Champagne”. The rest of the five to six hours were a blur. But I know that I had never drunk as much Champagne in my life in one sitting. 

Now that I see the horror of an earthquake in Nepal where thousands of victims have been killed,  I whisper a few consoling words to myself and them, wishing them a speedy recovery. We take too much for granted when it comes to the equilibrium of our planet. We assume that the ground beneath our feet will always remain firm. We breath air that will always be only slightly polluted and not filled with noxious contaminants.

Most of all, we tend to live in places that beckon us to stay away; be it a fault line in a potential earthquake; or a combat zone in a war-weary mountainous region where no man has ever conquered man or nature. As so-called rational human beings we are completely irrational and self-delusional about our vested interest in remaining safe and healthy. We presume without reason that nature is compliant to our wishes because we can conquer the air by flying and the seas by sailing.

However, we cannot and will not subdue Mother Nature whenever her tectonic plates rub against each other at times we know not where or when. A bit more humility and  respect is required when addressing the great forces of nature which we have mistakingly assumed we have tempered.

The earthquakes in Nepal and Northridge make me realize that the internet is not the only phenomena that binds me to the world. It is also the savage rumble of a destructive force in the past that makes the Nepalese my neighbors of today.

May their recovery be swift and without even more major damage; and may our need to destroy ourselves through war be submissive to our respect of Mother Nature.

Let me end with the words of the great Roman warrior/philosopher, Marcus Aurelius: “Life is a stranger’s sojourn, a night at an inn.”