A Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On!
...
Oh my! We had not one, but two earthquakes today. Oddly enough, the Bay Area was scheduled to have an earthquake preparedness drill, this very morning. Both were centered in Berkeley, and both had a magnitude of about 4, which in the scheme of things, are very mild indeed.
This first quake was about 2:30 in the afternoon.
I was at the shop, and while everyone felt and heard the tremor, nothing seemed to have been knocked over. We have good shelving for a seismic area, but I really would not not want to be standing next to a huge rack filled with steel or lumber when the "Big One" happens. The girls in the prop shop were upstairs, where our "hand prop" storage is, and apparently the contents of the shelves were really swaying and rattling. Everyone in our building checked in with each other, and once we regained our composure, we all went back to work. I spent some time wondering how (or if) birds in flight experienced earthquakes.
Robb was at home, and heard the quake before he felt it. He said that his immediate thought was that our stacks of siding boards must be falling over.
Later in the evening, Robb and I (and the indoor cats) were sitting in the living room when the house started to shake.
This was the longest quake we had ever experienced. Smog flew out of the room, and I lunged into a crouch in the middle of the room. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot. Some dishes shifted in our kitchen sink (good thing there were plenty of dirty dishes to cushion the blow), and our sump pump went a little crazy, because of all of the sloshing around under our house. Once the shaking stopped, it took us a moment to figure out what was causing the sound of gushing water. The "museum wax" that we use to hold our antique break-ables in place did a great job. Nothing was broken.
I'm not sure why this series of quakes agitated me as much as it did.
Linguine was not impressed. She never budged from her spot on the couch. When we found Smog, he was planted in a doorway. Clearly, he had not heard that we're now supposed to dive under tables when the shaking starts.
Oh my! We had not one, but two earthquakes today. Oddly enough, the Bay Area was scheduled to have an earthquake preparedness drill, this very morning. Both were centered in Berkeley, and both had a magnitude of about 4, which in the scheme of things, are very mild indeed.
This first quake was about 2:30 in the afternoon.
I was at the shop, and while everyone felt and heard the tremor, nothing seemed to have been knocked over. We have good shelving for a seismic area, but I really would not not want to be standing next to a huge rack filled with steel or lumber when the "Big One" happens. The girls in the prop shop were upstairs, where our "hand prop" storage is, and apparently the contents of the shelves were really swaying and rattling. Everyone in our building checked in with each other, and once we regained our composure, we all went back to work. I spent some time wondering how (or if) birds in flight experienced earthquakes.
Robb was at home, and heard the quake before he felt it. He said that his immediate thought was that our stacks of siding boards must be falling over.
Later in the evening, Robb and I (and the indoor cats) were sitting in the living room when the house started to shake.
This was the longest quake we had ever experienced. Smog flew out of the room, and I lunged into a crouch in the middle of the room. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot. Some dishes shifted in our kitchen sink (good thing there were plenty of dirty dishes to cushion the blow), and our sump pump went a little crazy, because of all of the sloshing around under our house. Once the shaking stopped, it took us a moment to figure out what was causing the sound of gushing water. The "museum wax" that we use to hold our antique break-ables in place did a great job. Nothing was broken.
I'm not sure why this series of quakes agitated me as much as it did.
Linguine was not impressed. She never budged from her spot on the couch. When we found Smog, he was planted in a doorway. Clearly, he had not heard that we're now supposed to dive under tables when the shaking starts.
Comments
I woke up yesterday night with a start - there was an alarm beeping, OH said 'the power's off' and in my half awake/not quite knowing where I was state, my immediate thought was 'Earthquake!!!'
We loved SF and the Bay, BTW. Went on a fantastic walking tour by Real SF Tours and biked over the GG Bridge :-) You live in such a beautiful part of the world.
All the best
Celia