Well.

[exhilaration]

So, I was chatting on Yahoo with Ivy, something I do from time to time, she's busy with the baby and all but sometimes she is randomly on during the day.

Um, the conversation went something like this:

Wow, my house is shaking
My neighbors are doing some crazy renovations, that is some noisy construction
Wait that was an earthquake, everything all right?

Nevermind that I was totally freaked out, my house was VISIBLY shaking, and I really thought something had gone horribly wrong with the construction project next door and that the building was going to start tumbling. Once it stopped, I was like, you know, that could have been an earthquake, I mean, what else actually shakes walls? Cause if something went wrong next door, um, the house would have ACTUALLY fallen, or at least there would have been some kind of crash as something fell in next door, but instead it was just silent.

Sure enough, earthquake.

And HOLY SHIT.

This is why I don't like being home alone.

If it had continued for a few more seconds, I prob would have realized what was happening and thought to move to a doorway. Which would have had to suffice because I CANT OPEN MY FRONT DOOR.

Fortunately here on the east coast we don't really have building-toppling earthquakes, and even if we did, I could very well have been sound asleep, although 100% physically fine, and my house could have fallen down on me before I even woke up.

Which is what I keep trying to tell myself, but I am still kinda freaked out.

Comments

[zeegeek.livejournal.com]

First, very glad you are okay.

Second, Wait - Were you the one who was talking about it shaking or her? I mean, I know where the two of you live and I guess I was expecting her to feel it first. Unless she was like making a mad dash for the offspring or something when you were IMing away. Not know she was AFK.

Anyway, growing up we had a 5.5 and 5.9 on the same day with the epicenter just a couple miles from my home town. Three months later we had a 6.1 that was also close by. That was like 18 years ago now. (WOW! that long??) Those were the first earthquakes the town had ever recorded since it was founded back in the early 1900s.

Also, moving to the doorway probably would have been your best move. Better than going outside even if you could have. Stuff falls off of roofs and buildings during earthquakes. I don't think you have brick on your building but it is surprising how far brick will fire from a building during an earthquake. We found bricks from my school across the field. At work, most of the walls are floating walls that are sitting on top of a raised floor and below a lowered ceiling so standing (sitting?) in one of those doorways won't help much. They tell us to get under our desks. But most home doorways are just fine.

Although, the one my brother stood in at my parents house was a bit dangerous because on the side of the kitchen cabinet next to the doorway was a magnetic kitchen knife rack with some rather big knifes in it.

Oh, and yeah the 5.9 was at like 11pm. I was nominally supposed to be asleep although due to the excitement from earlier that evening I was having a hard time getting to sleep. My parents had the 11pm news on though and it hit the TV station a second or two before it hit us, so we essentially heard it coming, as the news anchors dove under their desks and the camera guy let the camera pan down as he took cover.

Glad you got the excitement. I hope I don't have one around here anytime soon though. This area is known for big ones.

[lara-everlong.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was me typing and her being AFK. When I realized what had happened and that she was closer to it than I was, it was clear that she wasn't just distracted or something - she was feeling the same thing prob stronger and before I did.

I am not sure if this was the strongest earthquake I've felt or if my house just wobbles - cause it was most definitely shaking, and everything inside was rattling and everything, but it was definitely the longest.

It wasn't so much exciting as terrifying - I was home by myself and had no idea what was happening at first - except that the house seemed to be on its way to falling down.

[zeegeek.livejournal.com]

I'm betting it is the strongest you have ever felt. I don't know what kind of ground your house is on, but that can make a big difference in the feel. My parents place was on like old lakebed type of ground. real soft. It shook, but it had more of a rolling motion to it. My dad was outside for one of the quakes and could see the asphalt street have waves going down it. The people who lived on the hills in town were build more on like bedrock and they got more of a vibration shaking motion.

Also looking at it Ivy is like ~130 miles from the epicenter and you were ~210 miles from the epicenter. I am currious on how much you really felt of it. Because the 5.9 and 6.1 that I was in was like 20 miles from my house. Although we did loose a number of buildings down town and my elementary school gym to the earthquakes.