Ever been in an Earthquake?

[davekill]

We've all felt the shallow ground shake of a heavy truck driving past.

At about half past 11:00 pm tonight on the west coast (PST), the floor began a subtle rolling from deep beneath the ground and I could hear a couple of creaks from outside on this still and quite night - maybe the garage settling?

Earth quakes are fairly rare in the foothills of Northern California and nothing like the bouncing mobile home I was staying in one afternoon at an Eagle River trailer park outside of Anchorage, Alaska.

I had just arrived a few days earlier for visit my brother, when his trailer began rocking back and forth. I opened the door to see if he was just playing a practical joke and was surprised to see the car parked in the driveway also rocking back and forth by its self!

When I saw him walking up the drive he just smiled and said "Welcome to the neighborhood"

[Locutus]

I have been in two small ones. One of them woke me up shaking the apartment, but it lasted for about 2 seconds. It was pretty cool, actually, since it didn't damage anything.

The other one was even shorter, and no one believed me until they saw the news and found out that yes, what I felt was indeed a small earthquake.

[Rico]

I was in a fairly large one growing up in California where we spent a few years.  It was early in the morning and I remember feeling the bed shake and the handles on my dresser rattling.  Fortunately no damage and no one was hurt around where we were.

[moyer777]

I've been in many.  Mostly tiny little ones but one larger one.  The bigger one was rather scary.  I was upstairs at the church and all the video equipment started to rock back and forth, I looked out into the sanctuary and the par 64's and light bars were swaying.  I thought, I better get under a doorway.  Then I said forget that, and ran downstairs and outside to see the other staff watching in disbelief as our cars jumped up and down on the parking lot.  Then after about 20 or 30 seconds it was over.  It caused a lot of damage to people's homes, lots of windows broken and stuff that feel off shelves.  I don't think we had any loss of life in our area, but man, when the ground looks like rolling water, something is wrong!  Pretty crazy. 

The other ones I have been in were really short ones- just like a "boom" and then it was over.  2 or 3 seconds, but they were intense as you think something exploded. 

It is simply the strangest feeling when the ground isn't stable.

:ohwell

[Geekyfanboy]

I've been in too many to count living in SoCal. A ton of small ones where you hear it coming and then everything shakes for a few second then it's over. Sometimes the shaking is a bit rougher and small things fall over here and there but nothing major... then there are the big ones. There have been several big earthquakes during my life 6.5 or larger but the one I remember the most was the Northridge earthquake on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in Reseda (which I currently live). The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America. Fifty-seven people died as a result of the earthquake and over 12,000 were injured. Freeways collapes and an entire seven story apartment building collaped to only two stories (and most of the deaths occurred there). In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $12.5 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

As for me I was visiting friends who lived in Northridge and I always seem to wake up moments before they hit. When the quake hit I remember hearing the rumbling, it's a very eerie sound. Next thing I knew everything was shaking. Living in SoCal we have many earthquakes so when they hit most people stay in there beds and ride it out as they don't last long but aren't that strong but something was different with this one. It kept going, felt like hours and was getting stronger. I remember one of my friends screaming. It gives me chills now to recall that scream. She had just moved here several months earlier and this was her first earthquake. I remember trying to get up off the couch and make my way down the hallway as little things kept falling over and pictures falling off the walls. I stumbled down the hall way and saw my other friend standing in his bedroom doorway looking terrified. We both made our way to our friends bedroom and opened the door to see her on her bed with a book shelve laying over it at her feet.

It's strange looking back at this it seemed like it took forever, but in reality all this happened in a matter of seconds. Now I was stuck there as the roads were unsafe and debris all over the place. We had no water or electricity. The apartment seemed to be in one piece, there were several cracks in the walls and there was minor damaged to their things. Now when earthquakes hit I always ask myself "Is this the big one".

[davekill]

Wow Kenny, I guess you could learn to live with anything – but that's pretty scary!

I enjoyed the movie "Phenomenon" because earthquakes where a key plot point.

(And Brent Spiner was in it too)

[Geekyfanboy]

One good thing if you can call it that.. it was early in the morning 4:30am and folks were still at home and in bed. If it had happened at rush hour things would have been alot different. As a few of the freeways overpasses collapsed. When the big one hit in San Fransisco a few years back I felt it all the way down here about 700 miles and they had a high death toll because it happened during rush hour and there famous double decker freeway collapsed on itself.

[wraith1701]

Man; that's freaky stuff!  I remember watching Earthquake movies as a kid; I used to think folks were crazy for living anywhere near an earthquake zone.

We supposedly had a tiny one here in the Kentuckiana area last week, but it was so small, I slept through it.  I didn't find out about it until the next morning when I checked the news. 

[ElfManDan]

Last Summer on a missions trip to Guatemala there was a small one while we were at Lake Atitlan. It really stirred up the lake, even though it wasn't that noticeable where we were at above it. Only thing we noticed was we all started to feel a little light headed and the lamps began to shake.

[MouseSlayer]

long long ago...
one woke me up in vegas. i smacked my brother in the head with my pillow and accused him of shaking my bed. . .but then he was in his bed. . . and sleeping (ya know, untill i hit him with the pillow) . . and well i wasn't quite awake enough to think logically. sorry jacob.