5.6 earthquake hit South Bay
30 Oct 2007 09:37 pm | Category: Earthquake, Life, Work
So, my first earthquake experience. It was just past 8 p.m. and I was lounging on the couch watching “The Family Guy” and talking to Eric on our cell phones. He was just driving home from a recruiting event for work. I felt the apartment shake for about 10 seconds. I heard the building creak and our light fixture jingle really hard. It was scary! I jumped up and lost balance because the floor was shaking. I got a little hysterical. Funny enough, Eric didn’t feel it. Probably because he was driving. Then the connection of our cell phones cut off.
The next thing I did was to pack up our emergency kit. Eric got home about a few minutes later. He didn’t feel it, so he’s all chill. But I felt it and I’ve still got the chills up my spine now. We’re about 15 miles from the epicenter. Thankfully, nothing is damaged. Nothing fell off our shelves. No cracks in our walls. No pipes busting. We’re really lucky. Even though this was an intermediate quake, we learned that it wasn’t deep enough to really cause any major damage.
The last time this fault line (the Calaveras fault) that hit us today caused a quake was in 1988. And that time it was about a 6.2 (I think) and it did cause some damage. I’m just watching the news on TV now. It’s saying that a big earthquake is due next year, on the Hayward fault (about 30 miles from where we are).
It just hits home how unprepared we are. Even though we have some things for our 72 hour kit, I realized now that there were a lot of things that I forgot to pack; and that’s not good if the situation were more severe. We really need something that we can grab and go. Because in emergency situations, I think I’ll be too hysterical to think straight. On the news, many people are calling in and saying how their cell phones also lost connection for a while – we need walkie talkies!!
Anyhow, I’m still a little shaken. Eric is totally chill. I don’t know how he can be! He’s out in our living room playing Guitar Hero. Yes, we bought that for the Wii! It’s fun, but I’m really bad at it! And certainly not in the mood to play now, but I guess Eric’s ok.
Well, just a little update on what’s happening with us so far besides the earthquake hoohaa. Eric is working on a client up in Emeryville. Coming home today, he was stuck in traffic for 2 hours. Poor guy. It’s a really long drive. I’ll be needing to sub for music because our music teacher is out recovering from surgery.
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