Speaking of the earthquake, I’m obviously fine. Growing up near the New Madrid fault line, I’m not an experienced Californian but I’ve definitely been around some quakes.
I still remember that huge earthquake scare in grade school when they swore “the big one” was coming, and parents kept their children home from school for the two days they predicted the quake would hit. (I, of course, was in school. My mother the teacher thought there was no reason to ever miss school, unless you were bleeding profusely or vomiting.)
However, besides a quake I recall feeling during my childhood (I have no clue when it was, though my research shows there was a fairly large one in 1987, so perhaps it was that.), I haven’t really felt any lately. (The 2008 one in St. Louis was overnight. I recall my cats being particularly active and waking me up, but I didn’t realize that had been an earthquake until the next morning.) This one I definitely felt.
I was eating lunch on the rooftop patio of my office building with my co-worker. (BTW, it’s awesome. You can see the Capitol Dome, Library of Congress, National Cathedral, National Basilica, Washington Monument and more from up there.) We noticed some weird rumbling coming from beneath us. My first thought: What is under this roof? Then we realized the tops of nearby buildings were moving and shaking, too. Whoa! We and a couple other co-workers who were up there headed down the stairs. By the time we reached our floor, we were told we should evacuate the building.
So we get outside with thousands of other Washingtonians who were evacuated from their office buildings. And we’re all milling about on the sidewalk between these large, glass-filled office buildings. And I’m thinking, “This is NOT where you should be if an aftershock hits.” Obviously, Washingtonians don’t know earthquakes. And I saw that firsthand.
But what did make it a decent deal here is:
1. Earthquakes rarely happen on the East Coast.
2. Due to the types of plates or something geological, they actual do pack a bigger punch for farther out here. This Washington Post story does a good job of explaining it.
3. Many people’s first thought here is “terrorists.” Especially after 9/11. So many people didn’t realize it was an earthquake as they freaked out. Instead, they worried an explosion had caused the rumbling.
4. Because D.C. has lots of old buildings, they can be susceptible to earthquakes. Also, because D.C. isn’t used to having earthquakes, structures aren’t necessarily built by them specs to withstand them as they would be in California, for example.
At home, only a few (unbreakable) things were knocked over. The most noticeable result of the quake was that Griffin appeared to suffer from earthquake PTSD the rest of the night. He’s always jumpy, but he was definitely more so than usual Tuesday night. Loki, on the other hand, just wanted food (as usual).
