Earthquake open thread
Damn. That was the biggest earthquake I’ve felt since Guam.
19 Responses to “Earthquake open thread”
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propertius says:
I attribute it to a massive build-up of hot air from Obama’s speeches about the economy.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:37 pm EST -
Cyn says:
Oh, my.
http://trueliberalnexus.wordpr.....my-agenda/
Sorry for being off topic.
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Monchichipox says:
Seriously, I was in my office and I thought I was dizzy for some reason but it kept up. We all actually got scared and ran in the hallway. I emailed my sister and asked her if she felt it. She’s two hundred miles away and she evacuated her workforce. It didn’t help that my death phobia is being crushed to death. UGH. This is why I don’t go into parking garages.
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Sameol says:
Tamerlane will probably be put in charge of GOTV-”You’re stupid, you’re the REAL sexists, and you’re only allowed to care about what Big Papa tells you to care about” may be brilliant voter outreach, but it’s a little long to fit on the t-shirt.
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gxm17 says:
Oh my, indeed, Cyn. Perhaps someone should tell T that his ass is showing.
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K.A. says:
Re: Earthquake
I felt like I had vertigo, as though the ground was moving and the walls were swaying, and thought “maybe this isn’t really happening; I’m having an inner ear problem.” So I look to my right to the open closet full of hung clothes swaying back and forth pretty violently. That confirmed it was really the house moving! So dizzying. We never get earthquakes here in the NY-metro area, so I wasn’t sure if it was construction or an earthquake. I suggested the latter when I talked to my mother and she laughed it off, having not felt it at all, and considering our location.
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gxm17 says:
I was stopped behind another car making a left turn. Suddenly my car started shaking around, similar to, but much stronger than, sitting on a bridge with a truck idling nearby. It kept getting worse and, silly me, I thought there was something seriously wrong with my engine and was starting to pull over to the side of the road when it finally stopped. When I made it into Old Town (Alexandria), the sidewalks were jammed with people, but I figured it was probably a bomb scare. I didn’t find out till I got back into the office that it was an earthquake.
It reminded me of driving down GW Parkway when the Pentagon was hit, and feeling a repercussion but thinking a branch must have fallen on my car. We aren’t used to earthquakes around these parts and two that were big enough to feel just a little over a year apart is a bit unsettling.
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K.A. says:
I was wondering about people driving at the time! Glad to see it was fine, gxm.
*I’d like to edit the sentence I wrote about my clothing being well-endowed. Pretty sure I meant “hanging.”
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Ciccina says:
A friend of mine just posted this on her facebook page – earthquake humor. Don’t know who came up with it. Enjoy.
“There was just a 5.9 earthquake in Washington. President Obama wanted it to be 3.4, but the Republicans wanted 5.9 – so he compromised.”
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Cyn says:
I was quite shocked by Tammer’s post. I should be used to this shit by now.
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Violet Socks says:
Having lived through an earthquake in Guam, I know what they feel like. It’s just totally unexpected here in Virginia. For the first couple of seconds I thought it was explosions from the military installation across the river (they play wargames and stuff over there sometimes). The biggest explosions ever, since the house was vibrating and I could feel it right through my feet. But after a couple of seconds I realized, with great surprise, that it was in fact an earthquake. My immediate concern was whether the house was going to fall apart. I stood up and walked into the hall to see if the walls were shaking, and wondered if I should try to get outside. That’s what you do in places like Guam—get the hell out of the building. But then it stopped.
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Ciardha says:
This one was only felt by a few people in our downtown area (N Central Kentucky) I was working in the east end and my sister was home in the south end of town and neither of us felt it. But your description of it Violet sounds lot like the scariest earthquake I’ve lived through here- if a New Madrid line goes off we usually feel it. It was in 2008 and hit around 5 AM (I was still asleep in bed and it woke me up. First one I experienced that you could actually feel the multiple waves. It was a shallow one like this one too- it was “just” a 5.4 but because it was shallow it shook things much harder than the others I’ve lived through of that magnitude.
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votermom says:
I’ve been through much stronger earthquakes when I grew up in earthquake country but what was scary about this was that it was so unexpected.
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Violet Socks says:
And now we’re going to get hit by a hurricane. Just like Guam: typhoons and earthquakes.
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Violet Socks says:
You folks who were further from the epicenter: did you hear it as well as feel it? Because here in Virginia, it was LOUD. Louder than a freight train. Louder than bombs going off.
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Ciccina says:
I didn’t notice any particular noise other than the sound things make when they are shaking. That’s how I knew it wasn’t an explosion or crash – no bang. Consequently, I didn’t even get up off my couch until the very tail end of the quake, when my curiosity kicked in. God, I am lazy.
But in my defense – having grown up on Long Island and now living ~ 15 blocks due north of the White House, I’ve internalized the knowledge that in the event of a true emergency, evacuation / escape will be impossible. Might as well be comfortable while I wait out the apocalypse.
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votermom says:
And now we’re going to get hit by a hurricane. Just like Guam: typhoons and earthquakes.
I’m sure frogs & locusts are next. Yum. -
Sweet Sue says:
I was sitting on my patio in NE Ohio and felt my chair shake (gently) for about twenty seconds, but no sound effects.
It’s funny how I knew what it was.
My sister felt it much more in Philadelphia, she said the house shook and several things fell off shelves. -
Toonces says:
And Obama is clearing brush, I mean on vacation again.
