I experienced my first ever earthquake last night — a 5.7 magnitude quake that shook San Diego around 9:30 p.m.
That was pretty wild…
I was in my hotel (Holiday Inn Express in Old Town) sitting at the desk blogging on my computer when it hit.
My room is on the second floor and has a large wooden balcony. I had the window open in my room (ah…62 degree southern California evening) when I heard a bit of a rumble and then what sounded/felt like Rosie O’Donnell trying to climb up my balcony and into my window.
Yeah, I know, right…it shook that much.
But then I realized that there simply was no way that Rosie O’Donnell could ever lift her whale-like physique up onto my second level balcony, so I stood up and went to look out the window. And that’s when the next, much bigger shake hit. The entire building moved and it sounded like the entire San Diego Chargers football team was practicing tackling drills on the balcony outside my window.
Thankfully I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) “Gorilla Shoes,” which naturally increase balance and agility, so I wasn’t thrown off my feet by my building moving around under my feet.
“This is a big aftershock to the Easter Sunday quake, so it has all the dangers of any quake this size,” said Bob Dollar, a seismologist at USGS. “This is causing aftershocks of its own. Within the first 10 minutes of the quake we had 10 aftershocks measuring 3.0 or larger.”
Anyhow — that was pretty cool. Especially since there are no reported injuries or major damage associated with last night’s quake.
But it was definitely the talk during breakfast at the hotel and once I got to the office.
Welcome to California, indeed.
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Apparently there was a 3.0 aftershocks temblor at 4:52 a.m. today. I think I slept through that one though.
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Wow! I’ve been to L.A. often but never felt one…
Scary…
Rosie O’Donnel..that was hilarious!
Congrats on your first.
I have experienced several. My first was a 7.9 with the epicenter 120 miles away. I was badly hung over and had just left the dentist office, so my mouth was numbed from having fillings replaced.
It felt like I was standing on worms swimming through jello.
I was completely unsettled by the experience. Having grown up in a small town in East Texas, I had always believed there were two things in life guaranteed, my mother’s love and terra firma under my feet.
It sucks when 50% of what you have always believed is false.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/FaultMaps/116-33.html
There’s been quite a few lately. One thing they never tell you and you can’t comprehend until you experience it, but when it is a serious one, you are thrown about and it is difficult to hold on to anything.
My neighbor was a little boy and at the time of the Long Beach quake. He said his mother started screaming to get outside. They lived in a house around a large plaza in a neighborhood of immigrants. They spoke Spanish, then there were the Italians and the Chinese. Everybody was on their knees praying and wailing in their language while he was mesmerized by the cracks appearing and running through all the sidewalks.
When I heard that on the news last night, I thought about you.
For us native Californians a 5.7 is childs play, unless it’s on vertical fault, then you get some good air and your shit gets knocked all over the place.
Biggest quake for me was the 1994 the Northridge quake @ 6.7 on a vertical fault, 10 miles from the epicenter. That was one hell of a wild ride.
I remember that one, my friend lived in L.A. and she was thrown across the room from her couch!
Whew…took me three days to reach her.
You Californian’s are daredevils to live with the expectation that that can occur at any time…
Then again..we’ve got Tornados I guess…
Months before I moved back home to Texas after 4 years in CA, I was telling my partner how disappointed I was that I hadn’t felt an earthquake the entire time I was there.
The week before we actually moved, sitting at the dinner table one night, a 5.6 hit. Of course, we immediately went outside, but I had the biggest smile on my face.