I always tell people that I can predict earthquakes. I’ll tell you how I do it at the end of this column, but here’s a little background.

Exactly 50 years ago this month, my dad had a few days off, so he took the whole family to Yellowstone National Park. His first day back to work was a late shift on Aug. 17, 1959. Before he left, he and Mom took a moment to have a cup of tea together.

I climbed on my dad’s lap because he always let me sip tea from his cup. Even though I was only seven, I remember that Mom told him she thought there was going to be an earthquake because she had heard dishes rattling in the china cabinet. Although he had been a hard-rock miner all his life, and had degrees in mining and metallurgy, dad didn’t scoff. She just asked him to be careful.

A few hours later, a terrifying earthquake struck near Yellowstone Park. Even 150 miles away from the epicenter, the 7.5 quake knocked me out of bed. Dad had been driving, so he didn’t even feel the shaking. There was little structural damage, however many thermal features of Yellowstone Park were changed forever.

Years later, I found out that my future sister-in-law had been camping with her family for a week. Her parents debated about staying longer, but they went home as originally planned on August 17. That night, safe in their beds in Missoula, their campground on the Madison River just outside Yellowstone was buried by the largest landslide in U.S. history, killing campers as they slept. In just moments, the river was dammed creating a lake that is 160 ft. deep in places.

When my kids were pre-teens, we were on our way to church one evening in Bothell. I asked them if they had brought coats, and when they said no, I told them that if we had an earthquake, and if trees fell down so that we had to walk home, they would be cold, and I would feel sorry for them. While we were still in church, an earthquake hit. My husband turned to me and said, “How did you know?”

A few years later I began my career as a columnist. The topic of my second column was emergency preparation for earthquakes and other disasters. A few days after it was published, the Nisqually Quake hit causing a lot of damage in Western Washington. Some readers were pretty surprised by my prescient words.

So how do I do it? It’s easy. I have a vivid memory of the Yellowstone Earthquake, so I predict that there could be an earthquake every day. I don’t live in fear: I just want to encourage everyone to be prepared. So are you ready?

Patty Luzzi has lived on the Eastside for 31 years. Readers can contact her at pattyluzzi@yahoo.com.