Posts
I had arrived home just after 1:30pm and headed out to my deck with a large glass of lemonade and the day's mail. It was an incredibly beautiful day and I was determined to enjoy it! A short time later my chair, the deck and house started to vibrate, then shake and things got very loud. My first thought was a low (way too low) flying plane, then I thought gas explosion or did someone drive into my house? I ran inside to check on my daughter who was running down the stairs to see what was going on.
I experienced Hurricane Isabel while living in Williamsburg, tornado's as a child in Oklahoma, and even though I had that fleeting thought this could be an earthquake, I was also thinking no, not in Northern Virginia?
What was your experience like? Where were you?
I was in the kitchen with my dog in North Carolina and she got up and looked at me like "What's happening?". Everything was rattling and I could hear a my grill thumping out on our deck. I thought it must be a low plane but there was no engine sound. Then I realized what was going on. Very bizarre!
ReplyDeleteI was sitting here at mys desk in Toronto and felt the tremor! It was strange as we had one last year at approximately same time and date. Deja vu!
ReplyDeleteI had literally just got into bed, and there was a terrible rumbling sound, the whole room started to vibrate and I could hear ornaments and the crystals on the chandelier tinkling. It seemed to go on for a few minutes, but was probably only one. All very scary - OH of course slept through it all!
ReplyDeleteYour reaction sounds just like mine, total disbelief! My son and I both thought we were having an out of body experience!! My desk and lamp started vibrating then the upstairs sounded like it was going to cave in and I thought something horrible was going on within my house, something structurally! Then the crystal candleabra started sharking a lot and we knew it was an earthquake. I was quite shaken up for a bit as I thought they only happen in California!!!!!!!!!!! SCARY but just glad everyone is OK!
ReplyDeleteThat was my exact reaction. I was sitting with my Mom and said "do you feel that we are having an earthquake" but then immediately thought how can we have that in Pennsylvania? When it didn't stop I thought it was a gas explosion about to happen in my house so I got my dog and ran out. When I got back inside my foyer chandelier was still swaying.
ReplyDeleteI think it was much more frightening because we don't ever think that shaking is an earthquake. I have been through small ones like that in California but never a big one, thank god, I can't imagine the terror.
It was crazy wasn't it?! Glad you are all ok!
ReplyDeleteKat :)
I was in California where all of us natives were mercilessly rolling our eyes about the quake and then WE got a couple of our own little tremblers last night! I've felt them my whole life and lived through the 1989 Loma Preita quake but my poor kids haven't and they ended up in our bed very scared. Had another this morning. Glad you all are OK!
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteMy dog was in the yard below the deck, wish I could have seen her reaction!
Marie,
I bet those in CA got quite the laugh over our news casts! A few hours later we were grilling out chicken and talking about everything but the quake. However, I am so glad I was home when it happened for my daughter's sake because I think she was more unnerved than she let on.
I was at work in the Tyson's Corner area and I think it was the sheer out-of-context-ness of it that was so amazing. I'd never experienced an earthquake, but if I'd been in, say, San Francisco, I would have immediately known what was happening. (It was also very interesting to see who among my coworkers freaked out and who kept cool!)
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed that I felt nothing here in western North Carolina. My daughter who lives only fifteen miles away experienced small tremors. My son in Bel Air Maryland had significant tremors. He thought his big dog was shaking a table nearby but soon realized the dog wasn't in the room. A fellow who lives about a mile from me felt his chair move. I'm a little disappointed.
ReplyDeleteMy first earthquake was when I was in the 8th grade in southern CA. 7.1 on the Richter Scale, shook me right out of bed and went on for 20 or more seconds. I remember my mom screaming 'get under a doorway'. I thought about you yesterday Rebecca and should have called. Glad all is well, was it your first?
ReplyDeleteI live just 30 miles from Mineral, Va, the epicenter and it was pretty scary here. I first thought my son and his friends were jumping upstairs. As they came running out of his room, I noticed paintings flapping and the ceiling pulsing. The noise was very loud. We ran outside thinking it was an explosion. An earthquake never entered my mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it wasn't worse and that everyone seems to be okay, if not just a bit 'shook up' (sorry).
ReplyDeleteI grew up in California and experienced my first earthquake when I was five...I though my dad was under the bed shaking it...he wasn't, I checked. They've been a part of my life since then as Seattle has their fair share of them as well...thank heavens we've never had anything horrible happen.
Hope there aren't anymore...glad all is well!
xo J~
I'm in CT and didn't feel a thing but am now experiencing the wrath of Irene. We have no power and it looks like it may be like this for a while. It is incredibly disruptive and inconvenient. I am trying my best to hop around the blogosphere to say hello but is tough with no Internet!!
ReplyDeleteI was horrified to see photos of people leaving buildings--standing outside brick and rock buildings. PLEASE, stay in the doorways, don't put yourself where those bricks can fall on you! Once the trembling has stopped, then leave the building so you don't get hit with bricks in the aftershocks.
ReplyDelete