South Bay''ers - That Earthquake was huge!!!!

[asscher_girl]

That''s my first earthquake, oh my god, that was so crazy feeling! How scary! My cats are still freaking out and it happened at least 10 minutes ago

 

[asscher_girl]

a 5.6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just found it online

 

[FireGoddess]

I am on the peninsula and I have to say that was the first one where I mildly freaked out. The other ones I have felt were either at a Sharks game (didn't even know it was an earthquake and not rowdy people jumping up and down) and at work (everything there is quake proof). So to feel the house rattling and have a few things knocked off their perches was kinda freaky.

One thing bothered me...my cell phone wouldn't connect a call for at least 10 minutes afterward. Isn't that what they're supposed to be FOR??!?!??! Can they be affected by that moderate of a quake?? (Or perhaps everyone was getting on the horn to call their friends afterwards and the circuits were all busy?!)

 

[diamondfan]

Fires and earthquakes? Yikes.

Anyway, I lived in So Cal for years (all my life til I moved East) and earthquakes scare me still...

 

[asscher_girl]

FG my cell still isn''t working. I went outside for a sec and a bunch of people were standing around and none of their cells are working either.

I just saw the location. Alum Rock, I think I''m about 10 miles from there.

DF - tell me about it, what was I thinking moving here? lol

FG - We are actually moving to the peninsula, we just started looking for places.

 

[diamondfan]

I do not miss them, that is for sure! I will take some snow any day!!!!

 

[Kaleigh]

Scary indeed, hope everyone stays safe!! I can''t wait for hubby to come home, he''s in CA on business, started off in San Diego. Making his way north....

 

[sera]

Awww, your first quake... stick around and you''ll learn 5.6 isn''t huge.

lol. It is pretty freaky- was it a shaker or roller? I''m in So.Cal so didn''t feel it.

 

[Mara]

haha asscher girl....you'll get used to them in no time!!

i was sitting in the car at an in n'out burger with portia on my lap waiting for greg to come out...i was like gosh why is my car shaking (it was running)...my first thought was that the gas i had just put in was bad or something. but then i put my foot on the brake and it shook harder and i thought oh it's an earthquake!!

everyone around me was kind of looking around at each other and everyone inside the store didn't even move, just kept talking or eating their food. it was pretty funny... portia didn't even stir off my lap. 5.6 is def some shaking but in the scheme of things it's not too much of a blip on the radar. i typically just kind of gauge the shaking before deciding what to do. but that was the largest i think that i have felt in a while. when we came home, a few pictures were askew and something had fallen in our pantry but that was about it.

when greg came out with the burgers he laughed and said he knew he was a true californian now because he had been checking his voicemail on his cell while waiting inside and when he felt it, he just kind of spread his stance a little wider to keep from rocking and continued to listen to his messages.

oh and it was interesting on the cell because the same thing happened...the guy next to me in his car was trying to call and couldn't. and i sent a friend a text message and it wouldn't go for 5 minutes. i can only assume the lines were jammed because it seemed like 3 people out of 5 were on their cell phones right afterwards.

the funniest thing is that tonite we were having drinks with some vendors from out of town (minnesota) and i was saying that i would take an earthquake over any other natural activity anyday!!! and my coworker said she was freaked out by earthquakes and i said well would you rather have a tornado and she was like no way! and then tonite, boom!! what timing.

 

[Gothgrrl]

WOW!!! Even though I was born and raised in Northern Ca, I still freak out. I just let my dog out and I heard my house making noises.....then I realized earthquake. My hubby rushed outside to make sure I didn''t freak out too bad. Funny thing, my co-workers were saying we''re due for one.

Hubby''s not from CA, and was saying how fun that was.

 

[shigidigi]

I count this as my "first" quake too because I have slept through all of the others here in the Bay area since we moved here 18 months ago!!

The house shook pretty good and the cats jumped off the bed, but nothing broke or fell off the walls.

I was definitely shocked especially because it lasted so long! Is that normal for an earthquake to go on for 45 seconds or so?

 

[Pandora II]

I remember a few quite freaky ones when I lived in Italy - big enough to wake me up at night.

When I first moved there I was fascinated by the quake advice in the phonebook. We don''t get them in the UK at all - or at least you would never feel one.

 

[angeline]

I moved here 5 years ago and that was the first one I''ve felt! I was really scared! My dh is away in Japan and I can''t even call him

I think I''m mainly so freaked out because having a child kind of changes how I view potential danger. I saw her (2 year old) rocking on her feet and it scared the heck out of me.

I''m glad to hear it''s not that bad a one really.

sighh.... wish my dh was here....

a

 

[Gypsy]

You really think it was huge? That's interesting, I thought it was fairly strong when it first came on, but it was fairly short too, at least that was my impression. I didn't even get up from the couch. It was John's first earthquake too, and he was really calm and thought it was pretty cool. He got up, got in a spread leg stance because the whole apartment was shaking, but then kinda road it out when he saw I wasn't getting up. I've gotten really used to these things. Cats were freaked for a while, but they got over it.

 

[BriBee]

I was surprised because my animals usually sense an earthquake before it happens and I get a little warning, but this time they didn''t sense anything or even freak out when it happened. I''m about 30 minutes south of San Jose, so I didn''t feel it as strongly, but my cousin was at Valley Fair (Westfield) on Steven''s Creek, and he said it was pretty crazy and that all the light fixtures fell down! I always get a little freaked by earthquakes, ever since ''89, but when you''ve felt one like that, the rest seem so minor. I was predicting it would only be in the 4''s so I was surprised to read it was 5.6.

 

[Gypsy]

Date: 10/31/2007 2:19:18 AM
Author: BriBee
I was surprised because my animals usually sense an earthquake before it happens and I get a little warning, but this time they didn''t sense anything or even freak out when it happened. I''m about 30 minutes south of San Jose, so I didn''t feel it as strongly, but my cousin was at Valley Fair (Westfield) on Steven''s Creek, and he said it was pretty crazy and that all the light fixtures fell down! I always get a little freaked by earthquakes, ever since ''89, but when you''ve felt one like that, the rest seem so minor. I was predicting it would only be in the 4''s so I was surprised to read it was 5.6.

I was surprised to find it was a 5.6 too! I live in Fremont, so 20 miles from Alum rock, give or take. I think it''s the ''89 thing that''s influencing me too. This one seemed mild and short in comparison so I thought... ''eh, what''s the big deal, no one got hurt''

 

[musey]

Date: 10/31/2007 1:33:13 AM
Author: angeline
I moved here 5 years ago and that was the first one I''ve felt! I was really scared! My dh is away in Japan and I can''t even call him

I''ve been in LA for 5 years too, and I''m always the person saying "what earthquake??" I wanna feel one for once!

Anyway, I hope everyone is okay and that there weren''t any quake-related accidents. Stay safe!

 

[door knob solitaire]

Mara....

I chuckled when reading your post about Greg and his Quaker stance. Determined to get those burgers and voicemail...gotta love it!

Have you Californians have any freak out stories from those not used to it? I guess I am trying to learn what the norm is...how do most take it? Is it like Mara said...everyone looks around and gauges everyone else''s panic level before worry sets it?

Glad it wasn''t off the charts and that you guys are OK!

DKS

 

[asscher_girl]

Thanks for all of the input guys. That was a really strange feeling, I hope I can get use to it.

Mara, that story cracked me up

Gypsy - since I''ve never felt one before, yep that was huge to me. I think my cats were freaked out for a while. They came right to bed with me and I don''t think they left the bedroom all night.

Musey - sorry you weren''t able to share in the fun

lol

DKS - I''m sure everyone gets use to it. I lived in the Virgin Islands for a bit and it was during a really bad hurricane season. We had one come about 200 miles from the island and everyone boarded everything up and nothing was open. So we all went to this one house (on the beach) lol and we had a hurricane party for 2 days. That''s pretty much all you can do. Stock up on rum and party, haha. We had some strong winds and crazy currents/waves and some of the people we where hanging out w/ actually went swimming in those crazy seas. I guess whatever natural disaster is frequent for you, you just get use to it and learn to deal w/ it.

 

[Mara]

DKS, literally no one moved or ran out of the store from what I could see in. And there were people outstanding standing and talking and everyone was just kind of quiet looking at each other. I think this one was more confusing because it started so slowly and was a rolling movement. The scary ones to me are the ones that are super jolty like turbulence on an airplane. The rolling ones are more calm feeling.

Last nite, they said on the news that you can tell where you are in relation to the epicenter by how rolly or jolty you are feeling when it's happening. So rolly means you are not close to the epicenter and the jolty means you are right near it, yikes!

But it was interesting for me that no one really seemed to freak out and it was the biggest one apparently we have had since the 1989 'big one'...but I do (like Gypsy) use that 1989 one to gauge whether or not to go running hehee.

Also Portia was sitting in my lap before it happened as we waited and she didn't even move when it was happening, I was like hey dog aren't you supposed to be all tweaked out?! hehee. She was so relaxed feeling.

 

[Erin]

Glad it wasn''t any worse than what it was. Everyone is safe.
I remember we had an earthquake in Illinois - I think I was 10, 1984 or so and freaked me out. We''ve got tornados we''re not supposed to get earthquakes, too.

 

[Independent Gal]

Glad everyones'' OK!

I grew up on a fault line and always kind of got a kick out of earthquakes. Like ''WHOOOAAA! WHEEE!'' But they were never REALLY serious, like CA or Japan serious.

There are tornados around where I live now and THAT scares me a bit, although the crazy weather that surrounds them is kind of interesting. For instance, recently I saw crazy amounts of hail blowing completely horizontally. I was all ''Wait a minute, what happened to gravity?''