Earthquake Etiquette: In the Eye of the Storm Don't Put Your Foot in Your Mouth

It will take several days to gauge the overall fall out from yesterday's estimated 5.9 quake centered in Virginia, but it didn't take long for the East Coast bars to offer quake specials and for West Coasters to get extra snarky on Twitter and Facebook:

"To the East Coast Los Angeles says ha ha."

"As a life-long Southern Californian, I gently mock all of you on the East coast who think a 5.9 is a big scary earthquake."

"It is HILARIOUS to watch East Coasters run around like headless chickens."

Really?

Not only is it bad form to mock fellow Americans at any time (let alone as Hurricane Irene looms off their shores) but is this how we want officials in Washington to react to our next disaster?

Speaking of DC, this is where the decisions are made to spend billions on defense overseas but just over $700 million to safeguard critical infrastructures throughout the entire nation.

Oh, and in the last week the California Nevada area has had 373 quakes already.

Now there's a status update.