Not too much structural damage was done to Catonsville because the earthquake was central to Louisia, Virginia, although there were a few minor issues. The news reported that grocery stores such as a Food Lion in Ellicott City caved in, and the chimney in a Catonsville home had collapsed.

Something most Catonsville students found annoying about the earthquake was that it messed up their phone lines, so no texts or calls from our cell phones would go through.  In our modern society, not having a working cell phone for even a few hours is like the world is ending. It’s bad. The internet, and Facebook were still available, however.

“I was happy to still have Facebook to communicate with my family and friends, but it turned out to be the most annoying thing about the earthquake. All of my friends blew up my Newsfeed about it... we all felt it, no need to tell me it happened on fb over and over again,” complained Keshtmand.

The earthquake didn’t cause anywhere near as much problems for Catonsville civilians as the hurricane did. On Saturday, August 27th, Irene made its way across Maryland, striking Catonsville hard. With 90 mile winds and torrential downpour, most of Catonsville lost power sometime throughout the night into Sunday morning.

“When I woke up on Sunday, this huge tree in my front yard had fallen down; it took six hours for my family, our neighbors, and I to cut all of the branches and remove the entire tree from the yard--I hated it!” exclaimed Keshtmand.

BCPS closed for the first two days of school for all high schools, and longer for many middle and elementary schools. This wasn’t a problem for most students dreading the end of summer, but the power being out for days was a big issue. No hot food or showers, no charge for our phones, and no Video Music Awards on MTV. Not cool.

Another blackout occuring about a week later took out most of central Catonsville’s power, including the high school's. The power stayed off for a few hours and didn't come back on until later that night. Power lines somewhere in Catonsville had been messed up, and yet again Catonsville was hit with another extremely annoying natural disaster..signs of the end of the world coming? I don’t know.