Hah, hey, the Portland Tram. =p Yeah, spiffy little thing we're getting there. I'd hate to think what could (or would, since it's possible) if some disaster occurred on that big hunk of metal. Collapsing on buildings, houses...phew. And they're building so many apartments/dorm/condo buildings for the people at the bottom now...I sincerely hope that it holds and that indeed, things have changed enough that we know what we're doing a little better.
Again, dude, really happy you weren't hurt in any of that. I'm sorry for the people you know getting dinged up though. It's still a traumatic experience in any case to go through something like that. So many of the disasters we've had recently, 9/11 and Katrina/New Orleans etc., that when people outside of it are confronted by something, I'm sure the panic "oh my God I'm going to be a little digit in one full thousand" suddenly hits pretty badly, and that's the kind of fear that lasts.
My main concern is that the country won't look into bridges it needs to start working on repairing/rebuilding. Sigh.