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23 August 2011
East Coast Earthquake! Any other bunnies feel it? Our building shook like hell for what seemed like a few minutes.
Oh, yeahhh! We felt it big time in Salem, MA. It was the first earthquake I've ever experienced. It felt different than how people describe. I was in a meeting and we all stared at each other dumbly for a few seconds, then we stepped into the hall where everyone else was freaking out a little. It was an odd thing.
Here at the nursing home in Bensonhurst, I knew exactly what it was when I felt the first shakes. Then a pause, and then longer, sustained shaking. Definitely not a roller. I exited my office and then headed towards the front desk where I manned the switchboard and coordinated with the assistand director of nursing because both her supervisor and the administrator are out today. I also connected staff members with outside lines, as cell calls must be jammed now.
BTW, Phrases to know when dealing with panicked family members of nursing home residents, which I came up with on the spot:
"Yes, we felt it, and we're trying to find out more information. We're continuing to monitor the situation and if anything changes, we will let you know."
So far, we're not evacuating yet. However, I strongly believe that Maintenance needs to do a structural integrity check. Also, I thought I'd left this sort of thing behind me when I left California. *pout* I've heard from friends in Toronto who felt it.
Yeah, I felt it. Swaying building. Grew up in NZ so my thoughts went: "earthquake, whoa! wait a minute, I live in NY. Noooo it's definitely an earthquake." then it was over.
Yeah felt it here outside Washington. Had never felt anything like it before. It knocked some mortar out of a neighbor's brick chimney and opened up some cracks in masonry foundations but otherwise no damage that I can tell.
I had just walked in the door of my house when it happened and honestly I had no idea what it was; at first I thought it was someone inside the house running or coming down the stairs; it did not immediately occur to me that it was an earthquake. It was only when I got outside and the ground was *still* shaking that I figured out what was going on.
Remember to check your pilot lights, vent pipes/heat discharge pipes, and the like when you get home. The only earthquake trouble we ever had all the years we lived in Southern California was after a little quake (I think it was a 4-pointer) which shook the heat discharge vent loose from the water heater, which then smoldered for a couple days before catching fire.
Wow, it was trés scary here in Philadelphia. It started slowly, like a truck revving outside. Then the floor began to shake and all the furniture was rattling. I realized that the whole house was shaking. Things fell off the shelves.
I ran downstairs, grabbed the (barking) dogs and headed outside, along with half the street. The shaking was still going on, so the whole thing probably lasted about a minute. Everyone was asking what had happened. Finally, someone went inside and said it was on the news: there had been an earthquake.
Everything seems OK here - no cracked pipes or damage to the house. But I feel for people nearer to the epicenter, in Virginia. How are you folks holding up?
I once worked on the 31st floor of a building that was over-engineered for swaying during earthquakes. So much so that they retroactively installed diagonal braces to stiffen it up. You can easily see the supports from outside.
You could feel virtually every earthquake east of the Mississippi up there. At least every other month, everyone standing would simultaneously lose their balance just a bit, though not enough to fall. Then, they would look around at each other. Only a few of us knew why, and we'd just grin.
Since I ran the radiochemistry lab up there too, I kept up with seismic reports over our then brand new Internet. (Yeah I know, shutting the door after the fox.)
I slept through it. Local news is going crazy. Like mightshould, we're more focused on hurricane prep. I don't think anyone was hurt, and evacuations and shut downs are just checking for structural integrity - they shut the local nuclear reactor for checks. I'm in Richmond, about fifty miles away from the epicenter. It was very shallow, they are saying, which is why it was felt so widely, but has thankfully not been very damaging.
Felt it in Laurel, MD. Everyone in our office went outside (all 5 of us) and talked about it briefly. The maintenance dudes came down about 10 minutes later and did a check of the building, but everything seems to be fine. We didn't have any books fall or anything. One of my co-workers thought that our HVAC system (on the roof) was getting ready to come through the ceiling. I thought it was a bombing.
I totally think it was my fault, since I got to work this morning and we lost all power and then I get back from an office field trip and there's an earthquake.
I'm ready to go home and hide in a nest of blankets with several stiff drinks.
And then there's the hurricane to worry about. And I'm travelling this weekend!
they shut the local nuclear reactor for checks - Hmm, yeah, I'll bet that coupled with the approaching hurricane, all the reactors within a few hundred miles of the coast came down.
Yep. I was lying down and my bed started shaking. The bird started screaming. I couldn't believe it. My mom says her dog hid under the bed. Very unusual for Brooklyn.
I was in my third floor office in southwest New Jersey. At first I just felt this weird gentle sway and I thought I had vertigo or something even though I was sitting at my desk. Then it happened again and I decided to get the hell out of the building and ask questions later. As I picked up my phone and keys and purse, the building started shaking and someone screamed to leave the building. I was the first one out. I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life.
Wow, I really am living in BizzaroWorld now... first, my part of the California coast gets the mildest summer in years while the rest of the USofA is burning up, and now, a serious earthquake in Virginia? SHAKE AND BAKE!
And we haven't gotten more than a small gurgle around SLOtown since I moved here 6 years ago... a year before, there was 6.5 quake north of here that made me wonder about the move. But I was pretty close to the epicenter of the '94 Northridge Quake (6.7, but one of the costliest disasters in American history). In a waterbed, with a nervous wife and a nervous dog. We had no damage, but my father, 5 miles farther away, had his apartment building damaged so badly he had to move out. My supervisor at work, TEN miles farther away, had more damage. Earthquakes are weird. The next biggest quake I was in was 1971, a shaker with damaged a dam at the north end of the San Fernando Valley, that if it had collapsed (some say), would've sent a several-inch-high wall of water all the way to my neighborhood (those closer would've gotten much worse - talk about an inland tsunami). But I vivdly remember that we had just had a swimming pool dug and filled with water, and the first time I looked out the window, it was sloshing like it had a wave machine in it. Part of 15-year-old me wanted to go surfing, part of me just wanted to hide under my bed.
I felt it in Orange County NC, but just some rattling. I couldn't figure out what it was, but then a coworker messaged me. Watching the Irene maps carefully. It looks more like it will hit the coast, but it's a big storm. Am trying to eat the food in the freezer.
Yes! (In southwestern Virginia.) I didn't know what it was until later, though. It was noticeable, but completely harmless here. Dogs didn't appear to give it any heed at all.
We're holding up OK, but I might have a beer later just to be safe.
Huh. The mister just reminded me that I thought we had an earthquake last night. My monitor shook really hard for a couple seconds and I heard a loud noise. Either the neighbour slammed a door or I'm psychic.
Felt the hell out of it in downtown Washington DC. Was in a training class in a different Federal building, and no one thought to evacuate us or tell us what to do. Once we left the building, I had zero cell phone service and no idea what was going on back at home. I walked back to my office, thinking the guard would at least let me make a landline call home. So glad I did, got a ride home with the CFO.
TL,DR: Scary, but everything is ok. The worst part was not knowing where Mr. Arkham was. (At home, in the bathtub! He had decided to stay home after a morning appointment.)
Glad to hear that people are ok. I haven't had a chance yet, but want to look up stuff about the one in Denver. I grew up there and never even thought about the possibility of having an earthquake there. Come to think about it, the east coast too. WTF plate tectonics?
I've felt them in Chicago a few times - they're surreal and kinda fun (the little ones at least). I'm now so hypersensitive to them that if the BF moves oddly in bed at night, I wake up in a panic thinking we're having an earthquake.
Well in Japan we are told to not leave buildings because of the danger of fallen live wiring and other stuff raining down on you. Duck and cover people!
Good point, gomi. In the '03 San Simian quake, the only fatalities were two people who were trying to get out of a building they knew wasn't quake-safe (we are seriously into 'retro-fitting' old buildings) and were hit by the falling facade as they reached the front door. It is believed they would've survived if they'd stayed where they were, ducked and covered. (In fact, when their families sued the building owners, that was part of the defense - sigh.)
Ardiril, in California, we REALLY believe in recycling. I must also be noted that he succeeded ex-actors both times (Reagan and Schwarzenegger). Weird, huh? Still, of all the 'political comeback' stories I've witnessed, Ol' Governor Moonbeam appears to be one who has learned the most in the years between. Only took him 28 years.
BTW, all the biggest California earthquakes happened when we had Republican Governors. Just sayin'.
I felt it at the apple store in soho in nyc. I was at the genius bar getting help for my brand new but already broken air, and at first I thought someone was just shaking thei leg and bouncing the table, but it was all the stools too. The guy next to me asked if I felt something and I was annoyed because I thought he thought I was the one doing the shaking. Then everyone realized what was happening and the employees scrambled to make sure the really expensive equipment wouldn't fall over. Nothing did.
I didn't feel it, which makes me feel ripped off. Especially because my wall inside cracked, and the brick outside wall cracked. Not happy about that part at all.
There's a crack in the wall above the wall in the room my boyfriend's using as his new office, and it also made the door frame sag a little so that the door won't close all the way anymore. Time to make sure the landlord has building insurance against earthquakes! Also, we have renter's insurance, now, too.
I get to work this morning only to get a phone call from the building engineers saying we have structural damage to our warehouse. Note to self: for next year's performance appraisal goal of making a disaster plan for LSC, add earthquakes to the mix.
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