Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Paso Robles, California, is a small town nestled in the Central California wine country. Since 1892, the clock tower atop the Mastagni Building had kept the pulse of the town, an unceasing progression of hours for 111 years. The ticking stopped at 11:16 a.m. on Monday, December 22, 2003, when the building crumbled underneath it and the clock fell to the street below. Marilyn Zafuto of Paso Robles and Jennifer Myrick of Atascadero were shopping at a dress shop in the Mastagni Building on that fateful day, and as they attempted to flee to safety, they were killed by falling debris. Their tragic fate made them the only two deaths of a powerful earthquake that shook California from San Francisco to Los Angeles. With a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter Scale, the San Luis Obispo County earthquake of 2003 threw lives into upheaval all around the State. In addition to the deaths of Ms. Zafuto and Ms. Myrick, 40 people were injured in the quake and its subsequent aftershocks, which measured as strong as magnitude 4.7. More than 40 buildings were damaged, roads were buckled, gas mains were damaged, water pipes were ruptured. This was the largest earthquake to hit California since 1999 when a magnitude 7.1 quake was measured in the desert near Joshua Tree and the first to cause deaths since the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Northridge in 1994. The effects of this earthquake were felt far and wide across California.”