California Residents - Are you OK? - Earthquake Experience
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by Diamonds4Me » June 17th, 2005, 2:11 am
Oo, yes. I've never been in one although I have been told that NC has had a couple "baby" ones that I've never felt or remembered. If I did feel one I probably just assumed it was from the rock quarry a few miles away
 Hope everyone is well!
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"Be more concerned with your character, because your character is what you really are your reputation is merely what others think you are." "Life was perfect when the marshmallow was the size of your hand..." Weinberg's Second Law: If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would have destroyed civilization. |
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I hope everyone is okay too!
D4M - We actually had one here in VA a couple years ago that was big enough to feel. It was centered just outside of Richmond, VA in Goochland County, about 50 miles from where i was. I was getting ready to leave work and the floor started shaking. My office was next to the delivery area of the building and i just thought it was a large truck making a delivery, but it lasted too long and people started yelling about their computer monitors shaking and things moving on their desk. I worked at a newspaper and by the time i made it to the door, people in the news room were screaming it was an earthquake! I called my mom and she thought a large truck had rolled down the street or the furnace was about to blow up... she thought she was going crazy! http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2003/122003/12092003/1193995 |
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I didn''t feel a thing... (I live in Los Angeles.)
You should see the news coverage here in LA though... it''s as though an 8.3 hit! Non-stop coverage of a 4.9 is TOO much! Seriously... don''t be scared of earthquakes. They rarely shake hard enough to knock anything over. Actually, in my 28 years of life - there has been only one terrifying quake... 1994. Personally, I''d take quakes over hurricanes, blizzards and tornados! But that''s just me. ;-) |
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What do you do when there is one? Run outside and stand in an open space?
I know what to do when a tornado is approaching. You hide in the center most part of the house that has no windows covered in blankets and hidden under a mattress (to protect you from debris), but earthquake- totally foreign to me... |
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We were in the Epi-center.  It was actually the second one we had. But that one was the worst. It was quite a bizaare feeling; but, having been in the first I knew what is was fairly early.Funny I posted about it & asked if more was to follow. BTW, I didn''t get much sympathy from the Californians - a 4. one is a cake walk to them.  But, I was wondering how everyone was fairing. Mostly because it seems unusuall to have so many close together. Would a fear be that these are pre-cursors? Or just coincidence. We are thinking about you. I dunno - I''d take the hurricanes over an earthquake any day. |
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When I asked, I was told under a door jamb or other very structurally sound areas of the house. But, when the West coast wakes up, they can chime in. |
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Forget that!! I''d rather have a tornado, at least I know a few minutes before hand and can go hide!! I don''t do earth moving. Actually I technically was in an earthquake, a very very small one, last year. It was here in Illinois ( we do have a fault line but it''s pretty inactive) and the epicenter was around a town called Oswego, about 60 miles or so from chicago. I was staying with my mom that night in the suburbs and around 1am I was laying in bed and I felt a slight shaking. I thought for a moment it was her fat cat jumping up on the bed!! But it lasted about 30 seconds, so I was pretty bewildered. I shrugged it off and went to sleep. The next day I heard that it was an earthquake! Weird....
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That''s what everyone says. But all these in one week make me think there is a BIG one about to come a rocking. |
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They've been in my backyard, it seems! We've had 2 significant earthquakes in the past couple of days. The first was a 5.6 and we were about 10 miles from the center. They are in the local mountain range which surrounds our valley. It is the first time I've been outdoors for one. We were on a golf course. The ground just started to shake violently, and the noise was like a jet plane taking off. We looked around and all the windows and doors of the nearby houses were moving in and out. Really much more of an odd feeling than being inside. Inside it's thestructure moving and shaking. Outside it's the earth!
The second one was yesterday. It was 4.9 and again on a local fault which is a branch of the San Andreas. Both really were rolling, long quakes rather than the quick crack type. We haven't had any damage, and I don't think anyone else has either, but we are getting ready to leave the house for the summer, and that makes me nervous. I am taking down the pots and breakables that I have out, but you can't get it all... Thanks for asking... I meant to post this for F&I since she went through and earthquake obsession a while back  . ETA: Our local metorologist says to get under a table or something that will protect you from falling debris. He thinks the doorway is a myth.... I tend to try to get away from glass that could shatter as my first thought. |
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Yes...we''re okay...nothing even fell off the walls...no pictures were askewed...my cats weren''t happy...but this one was actually small in comparison to past quakes we''ve felt...
jorman...you''re first quake will feel scary, but honestly they''re so infrequent. I think that''s what makes the sensationalism of the news...because they ARE so infrequent that we forget that they ARE a possibility...so we go along with our normal lives (sometimes for years!) and then suddenly a quake happens...they ARE serious, but unless it''s a 7.0+ (which is rare), it doesn''t usually leave a lasting impact. The best thing to do during a quake is run for cover (like under a diningroom table) and cover your head underneath whatever is covering you. Afterwards, it''s smart to make sure that your house didn''t incur any damage and make sure your gas and water lines aren''t leaking anything... |
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that cracks me up! i''ve never been so scared of mother nature than when i was in oklahoma during a tornado watch!!! i''ve been through several earthquakes....even was lying on my back in a park out in the san joaquin delta and felt the earth roll the entire length of my body....several times. i''ve had vertigo from being in a building that swayed. but i''ll take that over tornados, hurricanes, flooding, scorpions, and some other things i could probably name....oh, yeah, those poisonous australian snakes! i''m a california native so i guess its all in what you get used to. it also depends on where you live, if you have a hillside behind you, if you work in a very very tall building etc. the day loma prieta hit in 1989, i was in a job interview on about the 23rd floor of a building built on landfill in foster city. gorgeous view of the bay behiind the guy at the desk. i did ask him if he worried about earthquakes and he said no. personally, i''d already written off working there because of the building....i spoke to them a few days later as i did like them and wanted to make sure they were ok. they were very very shook up. there are things you can do minimize the risk but in actuality, there are earthquakes everyday but we don''t feel them and they aren''t even big enough to report. you can look at the US Geological Survey maps to see where the faults are and check their activity. the east coast has its share of earthquakes also, i believe georgia is a mover and shaker. and the biggest momma of the all earthquakes in the US was in New York.....so big it moved the mississippi river bed. new york is supposed to be overdue for another one of that magnitude.... there is risk no matter where we live. welcome to california, jorman! peace, movie zombie |
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omg, can you imagine if NYC had a massive earthquake? That would be horrific!
 Earthquakes scare me, tornados are just a way of life here in the midwest. We had one mother of a storm come through here a few days ago, it was awesome. The sky was green and the clouds were rolling around and me and my husband and a friend of ours were outside taking pics with our camera phones!! THen the hail started so we went inside. But it''s fun as long as your house doesn''t get blown away! |
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Actually- i think the prevailing thought among geologists is that multiple small ones helps to avoid a big one. Little adjustments to the plates helps relieve some of the strain, and helps avoid one big adjustment. What was really strange was the Tsunami warning the other night. There was a large quake (7.?) off the coast of Eureka, and was a 'slip fault' quake which means a subduction shift similar to what happened in December tsunami. Nothing happened, but it was still strange to hear the warning... Getting under a table is ok, but newer evidence suggests getting right next to something big and solid but stable. They are finding that more survivors are found next to large objects that allow falling debris to create pockets of space next to them, rather than under a table that might pancake under the weight of a roof falling in on it. If you have a VERY solid table, get under, but if it is a less sturdy table, you might be safer crouching next to a dresser or low cabinet, or even a sofa. About running outside....only do that if you are sure there are no power lines around. Much of my neighborhood is older and the power lines run above ground. Newer neighborhoods have underground power cables and are safer to run outside. I was in Loma Prieta, which was pretty scary, but most of them are over almost before you realize what is happening. i have been in OK during Tornado season, much scarier to me because you have time to anticipate and fear what is happening. Far fewer cumulative deaths from earthquakes in the last 200 years than compared to almost any other natural disaster. MZ- were you at the Metro building in Foster City? I live about 5 blocks from that building, i can imagine it would have been a scary ride during LP. |
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wait there was an earthquake? does someone have a link?
honestly if it's not a 6 or above, i just sit there and look around. unless of course you are near the epi-center, then you go stand under a doorjamb. earthquakes to CA born are usually not a big deal. when Greg felt his first earthquake he had to tell me the whole story. i think it was a 4.5 and it moved the building a tiny bit. LP was scary because we had china breaking and the dog was freaking out. horrible timing too, during rush hour which is why so many people died when the roads fell...tons of people were coming home!! i worked at Oracle a long time ago in college, and it always freaked me out that the emerald city buildings are built on landfill. so during a horrible earthquake where liquefaction occurs, they could SINK. sure there was a helipad on the roof of every building but come on. we know that larry and his execs are getting off but everyone else? goners!! i was so happy when we moved into a building into belmont on solid ground. i would take an earthquake over pretty much any other natural disaster...tornadoes? NO WAY! |
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It was a 6.6 about 125 miles outside of Eureka this late last night....Link here |
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I was on the 2nd floor of a building in Mountain View on landfill in the LP quake. Even just on the 2nd floor, things really shook. Tall bookcases all fell over -- that was the end of tall bookcases in the offices. It really made me appreciate the bedrock that our home was built on along the coast. I was on the 10th floor of a building in LA during a quake in Coalinga (250 miles away). Everything in my office shook and swayed, but they didn''t even feel it on the ground floor. I REALLY wouldn''t want to be in NYC during one.
The recent quakes weren''t strong enough to be scary to vetern CA people, but they really rocked and rolled, so they got our attention. Quakes don''t worry me. I''m probably too casual about them. Tornados, on the other hand would have me petrified. |
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Everyone has told us that CA doesn''t really have weather (as in thunderstorms, lightning, hail, etc). That is so weird to me. When we went to CA last week we flew out with a large thunderstorm to our West, full of Huge scattered lightning and large looming grey-green clouds that turned bright orange with each flash and we returned to an even larger thunderstorn to our East. It is just part of life here.
A few weeks ago we woke to golf ball sized hail slamming into wood shingled roof. It was like hearing someone hammer. Pap, pap, pap... I am from Houston, so tornadoes are not as frequent there. Hurricanes were our big threat, but those are nothing. Lots of rain, flooded streets...When I first moved to West Texas I had tornado nightmares at least 2 times each week. I would always be driving and tornadoes would pour in over the embankments of the highway and lift my car off the pavement, the windows would bow in, but inevitably it would place my car back on the ground and suck back into the sky. Weird- I know. I bet I have earthquake nightmares at some point. My imagination gets the best of me, I guess.
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oh my gosh that''s so funny! last nite at 11:30 we were getting ready for bed and i was laying there waiting for greg to finish brushing his teeth, and i thought i felt the bed move! i laid very still and waited to see if i felt anything else but nothing. that was totally the earthquake and i thought, hmm is this an earthquake! then again we are not close to eureka so we must have just felt the outer ring. funny how when you know what to look for you can feel them but still aren''t exactly sure.
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Jorman, that''s funny, I used to have bad tornado nightmares too! Mine were that I was in a house, sometimes mine, sometimes someone elses, and the sirens would go off. I would look at the window and see the funnel cloud off in the distance, looking like it was heading right for me. I would run into the basement and wait for it, but it would never come. Strange...
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jenwill, think that was the name of that really tall one out there to the right of the bridge?
mara, i''ve lived in the santa cruz mountains now since 1993. in that time the only earthquake i felt was december 1998. about 430a i was awakened by a real shake. i laid there in the dark wondering if it was an earthquake or if a tree had gone down next to the house...or on the house. laid there thinking about it when it happened again. decided to go back to sleep because no matter what it was i could deal with it once the sun came up. regarding loma prieta: prior to it happening i had dreams of driving over the the bay bridge and having it break and my car going into the water so i rarely if ever drove over the bridge for about a year prior....a repeating nightmare. stopped once loma prieta happened and the bridge actually did break droppiing some cars.... also, the same day i was in foster city, i drove up to sacramento for another interview. i was leaving there and driving down highway 5 when loma prieta hit. i thought i had tires blow out! the after shocks for loma prieta were good and steady but nothing to worry about but i drove around for over a year with a complete survival kit in my car, including, camp stove, food, sleeping bag, etc. i make sure to have survival supplies here at home for both of us and the cats. water, food, extra gas, etc. like any natural disaster, having an exit plan, a suvival kit and an alternative way to get home are important. i think this is important no matter where one lives. i, obviously, have a very very deeply ingrained survival instinct! peace, movie zombie ps everyone that knows me and how many cats i have always wants to know if my kitties were acting strange before and warned me....nope, not once, never, the little ingrates! |
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Yep- that is the Metro building.
My mom was also driving during LP and thought she had a flat..until she noticed the cars that were parked were bouncing up and down. I was working in a hotel, and dealing with panicked guests for the night...lotsa fun! Every single one of the armoires in the rooms fell over onto the beds...the doors opened, the TV''s were on little sliding trays so they could come out a few inches. Well, when they slid out, that plus the movement of the building worked together to topple them over. Luckily they just tilted against the bottoms of the beds, and were easily set upright. The TVs were bolted into the cabinets, so none of those broke, but the next week we bolted all of the armoires to the walls in the hotel. |
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This is a link to the USGS Earthquake Hazard website - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ - it shows earthquakes anywhere in the USA. It even shows earthquakes throughout the world.
I've been through a few ( ) earthquakes here in CA - including Loma Prieta where our vanpool had just passed the freeway that collapsed after going over the Bay Bridge that had a section collapse. Our vanpool driver sped up because the road cleared from cars pulling over to the side. I've been thru a fairly large one (5-6) while on the 24th floor of a building in San Francisco - kinda scary as the building swayed back and forth and cabinets opened and closed by themselves. I've also been through hurricanes in New York and huge snowstorms in Washington State. No tornados though... I don't think there is anyplace that is "totally safe", LOL. Nature rules and us poor humans just have to live with it. I did get a kick out of "Are you ok? - Earthquake Experience" - it sounds so much like my Mom, who still lives back East. For a long time, anytime an earthquake anywhere in CA hit the news, she would call to ask if we were okay. We'd laugh about it, because most of the time we never felt them (especially the ones in LA when we live up by SF)! So we decided that everytime there was a big winter storm, or flood, or hurricane up where she lived, we would call and ask if she was okay. We all have things to laugh about now... Regarding any kind of disaster - I do hope everyone has an emergency kit appropriate for their area in their cars and their houses and has a family emergency plan. Regardless of the cause, in the really big disasters, the local emergency services get overwhelmed. You would be wise to be able to be on your own for at least three days. (Don't forget your pets too!). Do not think you will just be able to call out or have your folks call in to you - the phones will also be overwhelmed for several days, if they are even working. One of the worst things I have found in the disasters I've been thru is the anguish of not knowing if your loved ones are okay or not. Communications are difficult and if you don't have some kind of plan (a number for everyone to call, a place to try to reach, etc), then it is even worse. Hey, if this keeps up, cflutist and I will be living in an oceanfront home right where we are! |
