I felt the Earth move under my feet: a running, shaking thread

[Driftwood]

Outside in an open space might be one thing.
However, I was downtown with a fifteen-story building next to me.
I guess the prevailing wisdom was stay inside so you don't get hit by falling debris.
My thinking that day was something along the lines of "when that building falls on top of the radio station, I don't want to buried alive."

I guess when your perspective is having always lived where the tallest buildings are 4 stories and there is plenty of space between them where you could easily move out of the way if it started falling, not being inside one of them seems safer.
I get it, though.

 

[maumann2]

Of all the natural disasters, earthquakes are right at the top of the list for scaring the crap out of you. While geologists have a pretty good handle on where they think significant quakes might occur, the next major one could be somewhere completely unexpected. Charleston's nowhere near a continental plate boundary. New Madrid seems like the least likely place for three major earthquakes over a two-year period.

Seismologists expect Cascadia, California or Yellowstone to be the site of the next major quake, just because we had a good historical record of multiple events happening at somewhat regular invertals. But it could be west Texas or Oklahoma, western North Carolina or even upstate New York. There are ancient dormant faultlines that could suddenly rupture, just to remind us that Mother Nature's still rearranging the furniture.

We were sitting around the dinner table in Redlands as a family back in 1966 the first time we experienced an earthquake. It rattled the dishes and shook the floor. We didn't have time to move, just stared at each other until it ended. I've also had a few small quakes in the Bay Area that make you wonder for a few seconds if you're about to get the Big One.

Now, Loma Prieta was a different feeling. I was sitting on the couch in Vacaville, waiting for the World Series to start when the channels from San Francisco all went offline. Within seconds, it felt like the apartment was in the middle of the ocean, rolling up and down on six foot swells, with the walls and roof groaning and creaking. And within 30-45 seconds, it was over. And then you could see the studio lights swaying on the newscasts coming from Sacramento. Gwen was taking a nap on the bed and she thought I came in and was trying to wake her up.

I've not had many of the hard, sharp shaking like a rag doll experiences, and don't care to, to be honest. Even here in northeast Georgia, some of the Appalachian faultlines will slip every once in a while. We had one in the Lawrenceville house, which was on granite bedrock connected to Stone Mountain. And a couple up here in the Blue Ridge. I seem to even remember being surprised in Raleigh by what felt like an earthquake.

I'm better with hurricanes. There's ample time to pack up and leave.

 

[dixiehack]

4.6 is someone sneezing.

And 90 degrees is barely noticeable, not cause for an emergency declaration. All in what you are used to my friend.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I was in SF a few weeks before the big one in 1989. Before that I experienced a minor quake in San Diego. For years I was afraid to go to CA because of the San Andreas and really sort of forgot about it. I was in the one in DC about 10-12 years ago and a small one in NY a couple of years ago, neither of which I enjoyed.

I was in the Razorbacks press box on deadline when one hit Fayetteville. Everything started moving for a few seconds. Freaked me out - until my co-worker said “10 minutes to file” and snapped back to work mode.

We all assumed it was fracking induced.

 

[qtlaw]

I’ve been feeling earthquakes my whole life, I’m resigned to the “Big One “ sometime soon but most of NorCal is built expecting one so at least the damage would hopefully be manageable.

During Loma Prieta in ‘89 I’m a young law clerk waiting for bar results when I turn in a memo to the partner around 5:04 and as I’m walking out of his office he says “oh fu*k” and I’m thinking “memo wasn’t that BAD”, well it was the Quake.

That one was pretty scary, our offices was shaking for what seemed like a long time, most before had only been about 10 secs. This was 30(?). Luckily it was a beautiful building with new exposed I-Beams on interior.

Anything up to an 6, not a big deal here. 8 and above? That’s serious stuff.

 

[maumann2]

I’ve been feeling earthquakes my whole life, I’m resigned to the “Big One “ sometime soon but most of NorCal is built expecting one so at least the damage would hopefully be manageable.

During Loma Prieta in ‘89 I’m a young law clerk waiting for bar results when I turn in a memo to the partner around 5:04 and as I’m walking out of his office he says “oh fu*k” and I’m thinking “memo wasn’t that BAD”, well it was the Quake.

That one was pretty scary, our offices was shaking for what seemed like a long time, most before had only been about 10 secs. This was 30(?). Luckily it was a beautiful building with new exposed I-Beams on interior.

Anything up to an 6, not a big deal here. 8 and above? That’s serious stuff.

Exactly. What passes for a summer thunderstorm here would paralyze traffic on I-680 and create immediate concerns over landslides in the Bay Area. A Cat 1 hurricane is child's play to the folks on the Outer Banks. And a routine 3.5 quake barely gets your attention in The City.

However, if we've been through enough of them, we know what's out of the ordinary and that's when you put your earthquake/hurricane/flood emergency kit to use.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

About all a Cat 1 will do to trigger anything in the Outer Banks/Buxton/Cape Hatteras is remind someone to fill a gas can for the inevitable work by the bulldozer that will needed on N.C. 12.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Connecticut has some seismic activity, but they are mostly smaller. It's akin to the rumbling of a truck driving by.

Client Challenge

Connecticut Earthquakes : Northeast States Emergency Consortium