Of Tropical Storms and Earthquakes

 

I live in Southern California where we recently had a tropical storm warning, the first one in almost 90 years. The last one was in 1939, called the Long Beach Tropical Storm, and 100 people died. Lots of hype about how bad this one was going to be, although when I looked at the forecast for my area, the rain wasn’t going to be horrible and the winds were supposed to be less than tropical storm strength. Still, with hurricanes and tropical storms, you never know. I gather that we don’t get these kinds of storms here very often because the Pacific is too cold for a hurricane to sustain its strength.

As it turned out, near the ocean where I live, it wasn’t any worse than other storms we’ve had over the years. Yes, steady rain over many hours, but no real wind to speak of. We had power issues for a few hours around 2 a.m., but they were quickly resolved.

One odd thing was the earthquake we experienced Sunday afternoon. The husband and I looked at each other. Here’s roughly how the dialog went: 

(me) Earthquake? 

(husband) Wind maybe. Doesn’t seem like an earthquake. 

(me, more decisively) I think it’s an earthquake 

(husband, still not buying it) We’ll check in half an hour and see what the internet says.

We went back to watching TV, then checked and, sure enough, it was a 5.1 quake centered near Ojai, which is fairly far from us. Still, it was very odd to experience one during a rainstorm. I don’t remember that ever happening before.

Anyway, we’re all doing fine. There are areas of LA County that got hit pretty hard, but not as hard as expected. I haven’t heard of any deaths. Lots of traffic accidents in some areas and the swift water rescue team was busy. But, all in all, we did okay. Other parts of Southern California experienced issues, but I haven't heard of anything horrible. Catalina Island was evacuated as a precaution.

 This got me thinking about stories that are set during major events like storms, earthquakes, train derailments, bombings due to war, etc. It seems like the perfect place to hide murder or to have someone be unaccounted for so they’re presumed dead. Instead, they start a new life somewhere else under another name.

I know I’ve read stories like these. At least one of the Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth takes place during such an event. There are 32 books written between 1928 to 1961. She’s been compared to Miss Marple, but she’s a little different since she's less of a busybody and more of a professional. She's a retired governess turned private detective. They really are great books that are still available. Check them out.

Seems like it would be fun to write one of these stories. Someone could have been presumed dead, then someone who used to know them encounters them alive. Murder ensues. Or a death could be presumed to be because of the event but, upon further inspection, turns out to be murder. My mind is whirling with possibilities.