EARTHQUAKE!

[ColbertWatcher]

Southern California...details pending!

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. ? Nothing in Central OC

[Tiggeroshii]

2. I felt it!!

Just a minute ago...

it was small though. At least here. inland empire

[ColbertWatcher]

5. I'm in the Valley. LA n/t

[JI7]

3. didn't feel anything

what part are you in?

[ColbertWatcher]

The Valley. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. a small, smooth, wavy earthquake.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. I felt it!

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Where are you? n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. North Hollywood at the moment.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Okay, that explains why we both felt it.

I'm in Woodland Hills. n/t

[kestrel91316]

43. Hi, neighbor!

[ColbertWatcher]

53. Hello! n/t

[KeepItReal]

6. Yeah I just felt it!

Why did I leave Atlanta??

[ColbertWatcher]

7. LOL! For the weather! n/t

[KeepItReal]

15. ...and the nice views!!

I'm still kinda shakey!


I need a drank!

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. and the clean air!... just kidding

[ColbertWatcher]

28. Damn, how long have you been in LA?

That was not a big quake at all.

[KeepItReal]

37. 5 years

Only felt a couple since I've lived here.

Used to spend a lot of time on the road.

[ColbertWatcher]

39. Okay, so you haven't had your earthquake cherry shocked. n/t

[KeepItReal]

46. I'd like to keep that way now that I live here...thank you very much

I did get the crap shook out of me before I moved here.

Was in Magic Johnson's Starbucks in Inglewood years ago when all of a sudden I felt like a baby being shook by one of those bad nannies.

[ColbertWatcher]

50. And you're still antsy?

Come on!

You need to take a class on Earthquake preparedness.

Then you'll know what to do and won't be as easily frightened every time a big truck drives by.

[KeepItReal]

52. Where I was raised from you could flee threats.

We got plenty of warnings when a hurricane was coming... I evacuated N.O. a couple of times. Fortunately those were false alarms.

Earthquakes catch you by surprise wherever your ass might be at the time.

It's more like earthquake aftermath planning you have to be good at.

[ColbertWatcher]

55. No. You need to know what to do when one is happening.

Do you know what to do? (besides scream?)

What supplies to have on hand?

Where to meet other family members?

There are things to do before hand that can calm your nerves because you know what to do. That's why it's important to be prepared.

And that's why Californians always laugh at the newbies when a 4.0 hits.

[Tigress DEM]

61. Inside door jamb is one of the most solid parts of home construction.

Away from windows that will shatter and exterior walls which tend to get the most movement.

Under a strong table or desk near an interior wall is 2nd best. Things will fall down, let them fall on the desk/table first.

DO NOT run outside if you are indoors or toward a building if you are outdoors.


Aftermath -- finding clean drinking water and indoor plumbing that still works in case of a BIG Quake and the issue of natural gas lines getting bent out of shape and places going ka-boom from that.

Still, most buildings in CA that meet code will easily survive a 5.5.

[Hekate]

70. Wired to my gas meter I have one of those funny tools that's supposed to help me turn it off...

... in case I have to. Which I hope I never do.

Hekate

[Tigress DEM]

76. In MN during the winter there are a lot of nat gas explosions.

The TV spots say, if you can smell gas, just get out. Immediately. Just get out.

Your tool will probably be helpful if you decide to do landscaping and turn it off as a precaution. We also have a service from our Electric & Gas Companies where they will come and mark where the power and gas lines prior to any yard work or repair a person might plan so they can work around them.

[Hekate]

77. Wow. Different climate for sure. Here in SoCal our earthquake instructions...

... are to for gods' sake not light matches if we smell gas, but to go outside and turn it off at the meter if there's been a bad enough quake to break the house and the gas lines with it. At that point the gas company probably isn't going to be sending out drivers, and it's time to dig the emergency rations out and check to make sure the neighbors are still okay under the rubble.

Like I said, I hope I never have to try to do that.

Under normal circumstances we call Dig Alert before landscaping or similar and they come out and plant little yellow flags along the gas line route. Also I've twice called the gas company for a persistent but intermittent gas smell around my stove and the nice man did a good tune-up. Each time it was something different, and I figure one call every 10 years or so is okay.

But I've never heard of any explosions here.

Hekate

[Dennis Donovan]

5.5 according to USGS site:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/...

Stay safe, SC!!

[TahitiNut]

33. 5.5? That's just "fun size" ... exciting but not normally dangerous

Now ... when they get to 6.0 ... THAT'S when lives are at more significant risk.

[ColbertWatcher]

51. "fun size" LOL! n/t

[blitzen]

8. 5.5 .... 16 miles from Ludlow

[ColbertWatcher]

13. 5.5! Pfft, I'm going back to bed. n/t

[Tigress DEM]

59. Link to Wiki Chart about Richter Scale so you get an idea of what 5.5 feels like

IN computer terms (5.5) 178kb VS (6.9) 26.8MB { .1738 megabytes } VS { 27443 KB } < Rough corrolation >
is the DIFFERENCE between THIS EarthQuake and the 1989 SUPERBOWL Quake in San Fran CA that collapsed that double decker bridge

(more)
************* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale ********************


<snip>
Richter
Approximate Magnitude --- Approximate TNT for Seismic Energy Yield -- Joule equivalent
--- Example

<snip>
5.5 --- 178 kilotons ----------------------------------747.6 TJ

Little Skull Mtn. earthquake (NV, USA), 1992
Alum Rock earthquake (CA, USA), 2007

<snip>
6.9 -------------------26.8 megatons ------------------------------------112.2 PJ

San Francisco Bay Area earthquake (CA, USA), 1989

[kestrel91316]

11. 8:20 PM. It was a fairly good one, but not underneath me in the Valley.

Scared the cats, swayed the building, really swayed my vertical blinds.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Earthquakes: Nature's automatic dusters. n/t

[Yavapai]

81. You sound like a old time land surfer, dude!

[ColbertWatcher]

84. LOL! That's about right, yeah!

Until Lucy Jones comes on the TV and tells everyone where the quake was and how big it was, etc, one can never know what to expect.

BTW, under the right conditions, the basin of the Valley could become liquefied. In addition, Santa Monica is a low-lying area on the coast and scientists predict it could be devastated by a tsunami if one were ever to occur.

So land surfers could very easily become water surfers too.

[Breeze54]

12. EEEEK!!!!

I really hate that... well, only felt an earthquake once but that was in Mass!

[FirstLight]

14. Is this it?

Epi near Ludlow, Barstow, CA ...?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/...



Edit: okay, maybe I am slow on the uptake... lol 5.5 !!!

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Yeah, it's a little itty-bitty thing. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. I was starting to think I was the only one who felt it until I saw Colbert's post.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. : p n/t

[FirstLight]

30. What's the biggest one you have been through...?

I had the ride of the Loma Prieta in the Bay Area, pretty wild, weird to be in the city and have no power for days. Now I live in the mountains, and I am pretty used to it and cooking on the woodstove if needs be! lol

[ColbertWatcher]

36. Northridge, 1994. n/t

[kestrel91316]

40. That was the one to write home about, indeed. I never want to go

through that again. NO THANKS.

[ColbertWatcher]

42. Yup, that was an earthquake to remember.

The aftershocks were pretty big too IIRC.

[kestrel91316]

48. Yep, the first one that came right on the heels of the big one was

enough to nearly give me heart failure. And that whole first night was a wild ride.......

[ColbertWatcher]

57. Yup.

And it showed that a community can survive a natural disaster if building codes are followed.

We learn from our mistakes and we just keep getting better and better at it.

Sadly, here is an example of how not to follow building codes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake

[Hekate]

74. Building codes are kind of in our blood here. Whenever there's a bad one overseas we shudder...

... in sympathy. We (and the newswriters) also look at the photos of collapsed buildings and mentally tally missing rebar and crappy concrete or mud-bricks, while thanking our lucky stars -- and building inspectors-- that it's not us. California volunteer rescue teams with their dogs try to go wherever it is.

Hekate

[lapfog_1]

47. Loma Prieta - 1989 - while driving on a bridge - I thought it was going to collaspe. - n/t

[Donnachaidh]

65. try being two blocks from the epicenter during the Northridge Quake n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

66. No thank you! n/t

[Hekate]

72. The Northridge Earthquake was a doozy we felt up here beyond Santa Barbara...

Woke me right up. It's funny, I could tell from the rolling that it was a big one and that the epicenter was far away.

The electricity went out about 2 seconds after that, so I couldn't turn on the radio or TV. However, I remembered all those foggy 6 a.m. wake-ups from my clock radio where it would inexplicably pick up a San Diego station, so I went out to my car and started searching on the radio. Sure enough, I got San Diego and the beginnings of the information I needed.

Went back inside and hunted up my old Melitta coffee pot, boiled water on the gas stove, and made my morning brew.

It's a good thing I had my coffee, because I started fielding calls. Yes, we have one land line phone left, and it works in an emergency. Told my sis in Massachusetts that we were fine. Told my rather frantic daughter that I had no idea if her dad was okay--he's my ex and lived in Northridge at the time.

Turns out that my ex was okay, and so were some old family friends who also live in Northridge. He said that he was thrown from his bed and tossed around like a wash-load with the contents of his apartment. My parents' old friends found that every single cupboard in their house had been dumped, and that everything that could break, broke. But the house itself was okay, and didn't have to be red-tagged.

There were some awful stories from that day. I will never forget the news-helicopter checking the freeways and helplessly filming an early-arriving cop car as it sped toward the abyss of a shattered overpass.

One important thing though: this was during the Clinton administration, and FEMA was staffed by professionals. FEMA worked fine.

Hekate

[moriah]

80. A 3.9 here in Arkansas... kinda wacked out actually

It was in an area that is pretty far from the New Madrid, so it was kind of weird.

Data from USGS on it:

2000 06 27 012845 35.80 -92.75 0 3.9 LgCERI

I was out in the boonies in the Ozarks, felt the house shake.

Went outside, the two other residents were gardening in the terraced gardens. One was standing on dirt, and felt nothing. The other had been standing on some of the rock that made the garden terrace -- she was knocked to the ground.

The house had been built with the pillars of the foundation on bedrock, so that's the only reason it shook the house.

Was pretty weird for that part of Arkansas, at first we thought it had to have been a dynamite blast or something nearby, but no.... was an actual earthquake.

[juno jones]

93. My husband was in San Jose for that one.

He calls it 'Surfing with the Alien'.

In the Bay Area, I once felt the concrete floor in Cost Plus (SF) shake under my feet. I've missed out on earthquakes so far. But I've weathered some supercell/torandic storms in the midwest which are their own little ray of sunshine.

I now live next to a volcano. Always living dangerous, me.

[SoCalDem]

22. Shit.. we always miss out:(

It's been months since we had one I could feel

my kitties need the exercise

[ColbertWatcher]

25. What city?! n/t

[SoCalDem]

29. Moreno Valley...near Riverside (March ARB is here)

[ColbertWatcher]

41. I don't know what's worst: Riverside's oddball cults or the random earthquake. n/t

[aquart]

31. Putting it all in perspective, eh?

[sakabatou]

24. I should call my brother tomorrow.

[Zomby Woof]

26. Didn't feel a thing

Looks like the epicenter is way out in the desert though.

[Popol Vuh]

27. 5.5

I didn't feel a thing here in San Pedro (next to Los Angeles Harbor)

[ColbertWatcher]

32. Meh, it wasn't that big anyway. You didn't miss anything. n/t

[kestrel91316]

35. Yep, that's it. I could tell it was pretty far away by the gentle swaying

rather than rattling.

About 5 minutes before, both my cats became fascinated with looking out the sliding glass door onto my balcony. Interesting. They probably knew it was coming.

[Odin2005]

34. OMG, you guys had me scared for a second, thinking this was the "Big One" you guys have been...

worried about for a while down there.

Hope everyone's OK!!!

[ColbertWatcher]

38. Yeah, we're fine.

I just posted in case it was a "pre-shock" (as opposed to an aftershock).

[kestrel91316]

45. One of my cats spooked again a minute or two ago. I give it

halfway decent odds of being a foreshock to something in the next hour. Hope NOT, though......

[FirstLight]

44. Is there a map with all the faults on it...?

Some of those puppies stretch a while...

Wonder if we could get some action on this end of the sierras...?

[ColbertWatcher]

49. Post #8 above.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[kywildcat]

73. Some on DU posted this a year or so ago.

http://www.iris.edu/seismon /

[wtmusic]

54. WTF are you West Valley guys smoking?

Nothing in Burbank.

[ColbertWatcher]

58. LOL! Hey, I always post in case it's a "pre-shock!" n/t

[msongs]

56. Riverside - just a slight swaying, enuff to feel it and that's about it nt

[ConsAreLiars]

60. OMG!!!! IT RAINED AND PEOPLE GOT WET!!! (details pending) (nt)

[Lindsey]

62. One of my best friends called me from The Valley and asked,

"Did you feel that." I'm in West L.A. and didn't feel a thing. He was in a movie theatre when it happened and it freaked him out a little. He was quite a distancefrom the epicenter during the '94 Northridge Quake so he hasn't ever REALLY been in a big one....OMG....Nothing has ever, ever, ever, scared me like that. It was the only time in my life I just knew I was about to die. We had a whole lot of damage and moved but only to another part of L.A. because I really love it here and I figure if I die in an earthquake at least I'll die lovin' life and where I live.....

[ConsAreLiars]

63. Yeah. The OP's hysterical excitement over a common event is symptomatic of something.

I can guess what, but won't. A 5.5 quake is nothing but a mild drizzle compared to the real 7+ thing. ALL CAPS hysteria? Says more about the OP than the event.

(edit a bit)

[ColbertWatcher]

67. "hysterical excitement" Excuse me? Where do you see "hysterical" or "excitement"? n/t

[ConsAreLiars]

75. That would be, in case you are really as dumb as you pretend, in the ALL CAPS plus the "!" (nt)

[ColbertWatcher]

78. I keep forgetting that for some people I still have to post the :sarcasm: smiley.

I will have to remember to post that especially for you next time.

[KitchenWitch]

69. Excuse me, but in the two years I have lived in SoCal

We have had only two earthquakes in the 5.5 range. Not really that common an event.

[ConsAreLiars]

71. One every year, and no damage other than a few broken plates?

Not really anything deserving an ALL CAPS with ! added unless the OP is a drama queen.

[ColbertWatcher]

79. "unless the OP is a drama queen." Calm down, keep your personal attacks to yourself. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

68. SoCal gets a lot of transplants. I love to watch them freak when it's a tiny little bugger. n/t

[SoCalDem]

85. I'll take quakes over tornados ANY DAY

a normal quake is like:."ooh, did you feel that"?
(obviously not for the BIG ones)

ANY tornado can "get you", and they happen regularly like clockwork for a LARGE part of the US...

sitting, huddled in a spidery basement, under a desk, in the dark, in 80+ temps, with whining kids, yipping dogs & yowling cats..listening to static-y am radio...for HOURS is waaaay worse that "ooh, did you feel that?"

[XOKCowboy]

87. Hold on...

Tornadoes come and go within minutes not hours. Unless it's coming right over you it's not a threat. You can watch them from less than a mile a way in total safety. I rode out one in OK in the first floor laundry room of an apt building looking out the door as the world went by sideways. Just sayin....

Now as for earthquakes the only one I experienced was at a show in Anaheim. I was on a stage with subwoofers underneath it so I didn't feel a thing but the audience sure freaked out. Dadgummit!

[SoCalDem]

88. One summer in Olathe, Kansas, we spent almost as much time in the basement

as we did upstairs.. We'd get clusters of twisters..one night there were 5 on the ground within a 5-mile radius..and wouldn't you know, the damned sirens were right outside my youngest's bedroom window...once a week they tested that damned thing..right during naptime

and after the 1968 tornados that swept through, I was never one to hang around upstairs..we lost part of a roof..my friend's family lost their house & Topeka got SLAMMED..

[XOKCowboy]

90. A summer in Oz... Must have been fun

The thing about tornadoes is that they're so damn unpredictable. One year it's one after another and the next 5 yrs nothing. I remember those green clouds. It'd be a beautiful day, hot, clear an breezy and then few clouds would appear then rain and lightning and then a calm with the green clouds. Very eerie! It's funny though. If you grew up there then you always had your eye on the NW sky and instinctively knew when there was danger.

Now earthquakes... That's scary!

[SoCalDem]

92. Our worst tornados happened at night.. when you cannot see them

We've been in SoCal since 1980, and have never even had a dish break from a quake //knock wood

[rvablue]

82. Why do you have to be such a jerk about the OP?

Have you ever been in an earthquake?

And, if you write back, and tell me you are an old pro at weathering them, then did you ever think that it might have been Colbert Watcher's first?

I've been in quite a few and they can be very unnerving....so CWer came to her DU community for some, well, community.

Also, if you've been in them, you know that what you are feeling might be miles and miles from the epicenter.....and so you never really know until after the fact whether it was big or not.

My first quake: I was living in LA and the room barely moved and the lighting fixture swayed. My native CA roommate, said, No Big Deal.....well it ended up being the HUGE quake that hit and devastated San Francisco..........

[ColbertWatcher]

83. It's not my first earthquake and I have no problem with ConsAreLiars. n/t

[rvablue]

86. Fine with me, thought it was out of line for CAL to call you a "drama queen" and "dumb"

for your innocent post, but if you're OK with it, so am I.

[ColbertWatcher]

89. I keep forgetting that most people are more literal than I am.

And, that I have to post the sarcasm smiley more often.

LOL!

[ccharles000]

64. I have yet to feel it.

But that may have a lot to do with living in NC.

[DearAbby]

91. It wasn't me...I wasn't anywhere near the place!.....n/t