Things were far from 'normal' on the west coast of the United States. The earthquake had made Los Angeles look like a Lebanese war zone. Reports were sporadic, but officials were now estimating the death toll to be upwards of half-a-million. Hospitals were overwhelmed with injured patients who had suffered everything from minor bruises to broken bones and massive head injuries as a result of the quake. One man was transported to a hospital with part of the "W' from the famous "Hollywood" sign imbeded in his head. He explained that he had been on an early morning hike in the hills just below the sign when the quake struck. As the huge letters showered down on him, shattered bits and pieces knocked him to the ground. The point from the apex of the "W" darted toward him like an arrow; "before I could move," he explained, "the damn thing was stuck in my skull." He confessed to not feeling much pain, just some minor discomfort, almost headache-like symptoms. He really wasn't too concerned - in fact, he sat there in a chair offering to wait while more critical incoming patients were attended to, a generous gesture under the circumstances, which the nurses and emergency room attendants appreciated. Almost an hour went by before someone checked on the man again. His face clogged with coagulated blood, the man was dead.

Dead bodies littered the streets. Collapsed buildings littered the streets. Los Angeles was virtually reduced to litter. Even the buildings that had been rennovated and brought up to code after the last major earthquake, more than a decade before, were twisted into mishapen, mangled monuments of mass destruction. No one had prepared for an earthquake measuring 9.4 on the Richter Scale. Viewers of what was coming to be known as "the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. Channel" saw various images and listened to a motley group of reporters who were piecing together their segments amid colossal ruin. Bodies of people impaled on what were once steel reinforcing rods inside poured concrete forms of luxurious buildings burned graphic images into the minds of millions of viewers. Sometimes an earthquake "expert" would come in front of the TV cameras and try to explain what had happened, but it was all-too-often someone who was at a loss for words. It was if no one believed that California could be hit by such a dramatic disaster; 9.4 earthquakes were supposed to happen in remote villages at the crests of mountains which would only kill a few thousand villagers who still used oxen to carry wooden water buckets. This kind of tragedy couldn't be possible in the 'civilized' world of Los Angeles.

People were still mingling around trying to make sense of it all, trying to comprehend what had happened. Walking in a daze, some victims inadvertently stumbled over the dead bodies of people or animals. Rescue teams tried to recruit as many surviviors as they could to help with the effort, but some people were simply too "out of it" to be useful. They were allowed to wander around aimlessly, sometimes only getting in the way. One LAPD official stated on camera that "this mess isn't going to be cleaned up anytime soon. It's going to take us years." A famous Fox News 'commentator', Ann Coulter, who had rocked the world two years ago by writing a controversial book, happened to be in L.A. for the taping of a special series of programs denouncing the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization. In an ironic twist of fate, similar to how Rush Limbaugh's dead, bloated body was found, the petite blonde "mouthpiece" had been buried under a mountain of her own books, which had been set up as a visual for the broadcast. She had vehemently stung those whose spouses had died in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York, claiming that they were capitalizing on the tragic events surrounding their family members' deaths. Now, Coulter, whose abrasive, insulting mannerisms made her a "hate monger" on Fox News and a sought-after guest for TV talk shows, was killed by a box full of books which she had written, capitalizing on that very same disaster. When the studio shook, she fell to the floor; the table and the books slammed down on top of her, suffocating her in a pile of her own gluttonous grab for money and fame. Reportedly, several people nearby might have been able to save her by simply clearing away the books and pulling the table off her. These people, however, had just been mercilessly yelled at and chastized for not responding to Coulter's insipid demands fast enough; they chose not to respond to her wimpy pleas for help with any speed at all. "Let the bitch die," said one stage hand, "the world is better off.'

Reports continued through the night. Then an announcement came at 10:00 p.m. Saturday: Colin Powell would address the nation on tomorrow morning, at 10:00 a.m.