My first real earthquake

[av8rdave]

I woke up just before 4 am here in San Jose Del Cabo (not sure why). About 5 minutes later, the whole building started swaying. You could hear the walls creak and the doors shift in their frames.

According to CNN, it was mild, with the epicenter about 130 miles away in the Gulf of California.

Other than an occasional tremor (more like a shudder), this was my first "real" quake.

Anyone needing any dramatic survival stories, let me know!

[NYC_SKP]

1. I find earthquakes fun when nobody is hurt.

I've felt three or four, one was while lunching at Fisherman's Wharf in SF, the parked cars on the dock were all bouncing up and down.

Some of the occupants ran to door openings :eyes: and the rest of us stayed put til it was over.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. HItting a door opening was considered...

to be correct quake protocol for years -- now you are supposed to find an interior, weight-bearing hallway and sit with your back against one wall and your feet against the other.

I would not want to be at the Wharf when a good-sized quake hit -- nothin' but landfill there. :scared:

[NYC_SKP]

6. The funny thing was...

That the main exit door was not far away, yet nobody thought to run outside, which is what I'd have done the moment I heard structural sounds or it the shaking had become more intense.

Another one happened at work in a building at Sansome and Jackson that survived the 1906 quake.

We just shook it off. :rofl:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. You are taught to not run outside.

Very bad move -- falling debris can conk you on the head. In '06, people were killed by falling chimneys and brick/brick facade, even though many of the buildings themselves remained standing. Today it will be falling glass from all the downtown highrise windows designed to "pop out" during a quake. :scared:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Fun, aren't they? :D

I always say it's not a real quake until you get off the counch/out of bed to seek shelter in your interior hallway! :D I haven't felt one of those in a very long time. The little guys are fun in a get-your-heart-racing kinda way.

'89 is the beggest quake I went through. I have a friend from El Salvador who went through a giant quake somehere in the high 8s. The poor guy lived the nightmare of everyone who lives in quake country -- he was in the shower when it hit and ran out into the street naked.

[av8rdave]

16. It was more interesting than anything

Even though it was a first for me, I immediately knew what it was. It was mild enough that the only sounds were those the building made as it swayed. I never felt like I needed to find a safer location or anything. I just lay in bed and tried to time the length of it. I'm not sure I'd ever want to see a major one. In this case, all was well as there were no injuries or damage anywhere.

[Haole Girl]

3. lol!

Did you remember to stand in the doorway? :hi:

[av8rdave]

12. No...I lay in bed and thought about....

what if it was way stronger at the epicenter, and what if the epicenter was out in the ocean, and what if a huge tsunami was headed our way? I tried to figure how much longer it would take a water wave the propagate vs. the shock wave in solid ground, then thought, "screw it, it's too complicated," and went back to sleep.

[Haole Girl]

14. That's funny!

:D

[ogneopasno]

5. I'm from the Midwest and was in LA for work many years ago, and was convinced the Big One

would hit while I was there. One day I went to the meetings and was told I had slept through an earthquake the night before! I was so disappointed.

It was in November, and it was like 60 degrees -- I went to a Raiders game and was lectured for not wearing mittens. LMAO.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. That is positively arctic for LA! :D

I had a friend who moved here from Minnesota a year or so ago. His boyfriend and I would tell him how cold it got here in SF, but he laughed it off. Well, our "winter" hit here and he finally got just how cold 55 degrees can feel! Because we are a port town, our air is very wet and will absolutely chill you to the bone at 55. :cold:

[Marrah_G]

9. 55 is totally not cold!

I don't even wear a jacket or a sweater if it's 55!

Heck my heat is set at 60 in the winter.

[ogneopasno]

11. Heh, I'm in Northern Minnesota, and while I acknowledge that a damp 55 can chill you, it doesn't

feel anything like the -20 we had this morning.

[KitchenWitch]

13. A damp 55 degrees is sweatshirt weather.

But I lived for 40 years where there were stretches of days that the HIGH temperature was -15 F. So it is all relative.

People here in the greater Los Angeles area seem to break out the North Face parkas when it gets below 65 degrees.

[driver8]

10. I woke up a couple of minutes before the Northridge Quake hit...

I lived about a mile from the epicenter, and could hear it coming. It sounded like a freight train going through the middle of my apartment.

I thought I was a goner.

[mnhtnbb]

15. I was a UCLA student when the Sylmar quake hit in Feb '71

It was centered miles and miles from where we lived near campus, and both my roommate
and I thought it was the end of the world. It shook and shook and shook. Lots of aftershocks.
The big temblor was 6.6 magnitude.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1971_02_09.php

I am so happy to no longer be living in quake country.

[av8rdave]

17. That had to be terrifying!

Fortunately, this one was very minor and no bad results whatsoever!