Earthquake Devastation In Toronto

On Wednesday a 5.0 magnitude earthquake rocked a broad region of southern Ontario and surrounding northern US states. Many of my friends and colleages in Hamilton felt it. Francine, who works perhaps 1.5 KM away from where I work said her entire office shook, computers and desks rattling. Her office is on the 2nd floor. My office is in the basement and I think the building I'm in was carved out of petroglyphic rock or something, because I didn't even notice a thing.  Though others in the office across the way said they did experience a strange subtle shaking sensation that they weren't sure about.  Most thought at first that it was construction going on in our building. (Or perhaps the fact i didn't notice is a sign that I was buried under with so much work that I fail to notice certain things -- er, that's NOT a good sign)

But in any case, I first saw this photo of the earthquake devastation in Toronto via Twitter, which is where I was following most updates about the earthquake. Twitter was an interesting combination of updates and info from friends all over, combined with jokes and humourous notes about it, such as the earthquake causing a tsunami in the G20 fake lake or people speculating that it wasn't an earthquake, it was Quebec finally separating. Then a friend forwarded the same earthquake devastation picture via email.

The picture, which may be disturbing to some, shows the devastation to just one neighbourhood yard in Toronto.

This joke picture which is still making the rounds reminded me of several years ago when a massive snowstorm hit Toronto and the army was called in.  That, of course leads to the follow-up punch line where someone speculates that perhaps THAT is why there are thousands of police officers currently in riot gear in Toronto. They aren't there for the G8 and G20 summits -- they were called in to clean up the massive devastation which is obviously going to take weeks to recover from.