Earthquake on the East Coast

[SiXiam]

See that proves my point you guys were so tied up with working that you didn't notice anything.
The Cali commit I made was about the number of people with the attitude of "Stop being a pansy, little 5.8 quake is nothing."
Instead teasing us East Coasters maybe we should be using this as a teaching tool to get more people to prep. Laughing does nothing
but piss people off and turn them away from what we are trying to do. Hell look how pissed you guys got after I said bite my a$$.
Maybe I went about it the wrong way, but you guys didn't like that as much as I didn't like the attitude. The fact is that Cali buildings
are build to withstand quakes, VA buildings are not.

I can understand if someone was asleep, but working is no excuse things like this are how muggings happen. If you didn't notice
the Earth moving, chruch bells ringing, chandaleers and ceiling fans swinging about, and water in glasses or fish tanks splashing
around...well how exactly are you going to notice the mugger walking up? Hopefully this makes you think instead of getting mad and
just disregarding what I'm trying to say.

I think its perfectly fine to laugh at the Eastern people, not used to earthquakes.
I haven't seen any reports of anyone dying or getting any serious injures.

Of course we North Eastern people laugh at people in the south when they get a little bit of snow.
Though it certainly isn't funny when someone there gets into an accident because of ice.

I dunno why I didn't feel anything, I was just lying in bed (waterbed, you'd think it woulda rocked a bit) and watching a MASH rerun lol Granted, I think I was half asleep at the time so...

I slept right through it myself. My mom certainly felt it though. She said the keys, hanging on a hook, were swaying back and forth.

Note: "Your message contains too many smilies. The maximum number of smilies allowed is 5."...lol

[KentsOkay]

Didnt feel a thing at work in Cambridge Mass. Some coworers and I discussed it, then realized something had happened in Colorado, then realized Yellowstone is a ticking time bomb

Here yee here yee Boston-folk, anyone care for a "Survived the East Coast Shocker" get-together?

[Horatio_Tyllis]

Bunch of sheep.

Even jokingly, we don't do that around here. You know better.

[SeerSavant]

So I'm sitting at work, and the monitor in front of me starts moving, and I get this vertigo feeling as if I'm sitting in a boat on a mostly calm lake, just kinda moving back and forth and thinking, Ah shit, my inner ear is all jacked up from swimming... Then I start thinking, wait, maybe my blood pressure is up... Or I'm getting a sugar reaction, since the diabetic gene has reared it's head in a few relatives, and i'm thinking, oh, man what the hell is wrong with me...
Then I get this idea... The stool I'm sitting on is wobbly, so I get of the chair... about the time the motion stops, and i'm wiggling the seat around and looking to see if it's off balance...

Then a coworker comes by and looks at me and cocks his head..."what the hell are you doing?"

"I think the seats messed up.... I dunno, maybe my balance is off"

I go back to screwing with the seat when another co worker walks in and all excitedly goes; "Hey, did you feel that??? We just had an earthquake!!"

To which I reply; "Thank God!" Hell, I thought something was wrong with me.

Which they took as if I had said something strange....

Go figure.

[Oneswunk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQUTltcIHV4

look at the snipers on the roof (who already saw ya'll) run around when it starts to shake


also toronto pearson yyz is closed too

Video removed by skynet.

[Redemption]

Okay, so I live on the 2nd floor of my apt. building, I was laid out on the couch and was about to yell at my kids to quit shaking it (they were in school ).
I actually thought the building was going to fall, it's old and noisy without an earthquake.
I went outside (without any bob,fail) and nobody else had even felt it.
I called my brother to see if they felt it an hour away and no, nothing.
It wasn't until I was about to write it off to being crazy and checked my Facebook that I realized it wasn't just me.
Here in Southern WV we are surrounded by coal mines,
and explosions and vibration are not so uncommon.

Lessons learned:
1:Get amateur radio comms for my wife and my brother. (Text was ok for 20-30 minutes)
2:Get the B.O.B.'s put together and leave them that way,
(dedicate gear to bobs (not borrowing for camping).
3:Quit putting off getting a better BOV (we currently have a minivan (2wd) and my Wrangler (no room for storage or our soon to be 5 member family).
We had no need to bug out this time,but we were certainly not ready to do so, the Jeep is still topless as it has been all summer and the fuel gauge was left on E when I returned from an extended day of driving for work.

[Vicarious_Lee]

Bunch of sheep.

Even jokingly, we don't do that around here. You know better.

See, it's funny because I have a......when my avata....see it's a......


mmmh

[kbi]

I lost it last nighgt when I saw this one.






So uploading it to spencer's gift website and ordering a t-shirt




All in all I give myself 3 out of 5 for the way I handled my self

1 point for being calm ( looked around and siad wtf as I walked on out )

1 point for saving my big gulp as well as checking on family and co worker's

1 point for a clean set of drawer's




Here's the negative 2

-1 for leaving my key's behind

-1 for only having a tee shirt and socks and 1st aid kit in my bug out bag

[DialM]

I just came across these stunning photos of the damage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Warning, #5 is horrific.

[silversnake]

The east coast earthquake taught me I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was.

When it happened, I was in a meeting on the 6th floor of an old brick office building here in Boston. When everything started to shake (we felt it rather strongly due to some quirk in the geography or our height and building age) people were a bit confused, but we figured it out quickly and had started moving toward the exits by the time the shaking stopped. They had us evacuate the whole building "just to be safe" for about 40 minutes.

Here's where I had a bit of prep fail. I had another meeting to go to across town at 3pm. I have a nice kit of EDC stuff in a messenger bag I carry to work - leatherman, flashlight, small first aid kit, flash drive of encrypted important personal information, etc. My car is parked out front and ready to go with my gym bag in the trunk (extra change of clothes), a full tank, and about $20 in loose change. All I need to do is grab my bag and hop in the car and get on with my day. Right?

Wrong! I was in a meeting several floors above my office and evacuated out directly from there while my bag sat in my office. At least I took my bottle of water from the meeting with me, but that's strike one - left my kit in the building because I didn't think to bring it with me to the meeting. Then, I realize that my car is parked right in front of the building. Had this been a big quake and local to Boston instead of Virginia, I could have had half the front of the brick building on my car. Not this time, but made me think of it.

Lessons learned, park the extra half block or so away up a side street instead of right in front of an old government building and always carry your EDC stuff with you if you're going to bother with all the trouble of actually bringing it to work with you.

[mattdcknsn]

Lessons learned, park the extra half block or so away up a side street instead of right in front of an old government building and always carry your EDC stuff with you if you're going to bother with all the trouble of actually bringing it to work with you.

I am not sure if this would have made a difference. Maybe the building you park in front of would have collapsed. I am not sure if you can prepare for every type of situation possible, just the likely ones. I would say park in front of where you're at (if possible). I would rather risk the building falling down on top of it, than having to park a couple of blocks away and possibly not get to the car.

[silversnake]

Lessons learned, park the extra half block or so away up a side street instead of right in front of an old government building and always carry your EDC stuff with you if you're going to bother with all the trouble of actually bringing it to work with you.

I am not sure if this would have made a difference. Maybe the building you park in front of would have collapsed. I am not sure if you can prepare for every type of situation possible, just the likely ones. I would say park in front of where you're at (if possible). I would rather risk the building falling down on top of it, than having to park a couple of blocks away and possibly not get to the car.

Yeah, I should have clarified. One of the side streets near my work has a park on one side and a private parking lot on the other - nothing to fall on my car or otherwise keep me from it if I park there. If I park in front of the building, it's not just falling bricks, but also getting parked in by emergency equipment and not allowed to approach the building if other events are happening such as fires. Can't prepare for everything and I wouldn't bother even thinking about it if such a good alternative wasn't literally less than a minute of further walking distance.

[NoAm]

The fuel gauge was left on E when I returned from an extended day of driving for work.

1/2 is the new E for our vehicles. For the last couple of years, we have always tried to keep at least a 1/2 tank of gas in the cars.

1. It hurts a lot less, filling the vehicles.
2. If we have to 'Get the hell out of dodge' we can get at least a couple of hundred miles, without having to stop to filll up.

We also keep 5 or 6 gas cans full, in the outbuilding.

[basm]

I just came across these stunning photos of the damage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Warning, #5 is horrific.

I was particularly disturbed by #17. It's ok to cry man, it's ok to cry.

[SeerSavant]

I just came across these stunning photos of the damage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Warning, #5 is horrific.

I was particularly disturbed by #17. It's ok to cry man, it's ok to cry.

Picture 11 doesn't belong... Clearly Boba was pushed down....

[DialM]

I just came across these stunning photos of the damage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Warning, #5 is horrific.

I was particularly disturbed by #17. It's ok to cry man, it's ok to cry.

Picture 11 doesn't belong... Clearly Boba was pushed down....

Zombie Darth is trying to rule the PAW.

[SeerSavant]

I just came across these stunning photos of the damage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/stunning-photos-of-damage-caused-by-the-east-coast
Warning, #5 is horrific.

I was particularly disturbed by #17. It's ok to cry man, it's ok to cry.

Picture 11 doesn't belong... Clearly Boba was pushed down....

Zombie Darth is trying to rule the PAW.

See... We wouldn't have to put up with this kinda shit in our toys if we'd go back to MEGO figures....

[RickOShea]

I should have realized something was up when I noticed all the birds flying west and all the armadillos were getting plastered.

[ShortFieldBreak]

I'm working nights right now, so I was sleeping at the time. I woke up and felt some shaking, so I sat up on the side of the bed and noticed the blinds wiggling around a bit. Then it stopped. At first I was thinking "Why don't I hear the big truck driving by the house", and then I thought "WTF was that? Because, I KNOW Virginia doesn't have earthquakes". I grew up in California, so I'm very familiar with them.

The next time I woke up I had a text from my 89 year old grandmother in CA asking if I felt the quake. I'm not sure which was more amazing, that Virginia had an earthquake, or an 89 yr old who likes to text.

-SFB

[squinty]

I was at Penn Station when the'earthquake happened, about to get on the Amtrack. They evacuated office buildings for a few minutes, but I went blithely (and sheepily) into an underground tunnell in the middle of n earthquake.

Which was a mistake because constant stops for track and bridge inspections made my twelve hour train ride hours longer. Dipped into the BoB for rations and comfort measures.

[airballrad]

There was a 4.5 aftershock around 1AM. I think it woke me, because something did about that time. Fortunately, 4.5 is a lot less intense than a 5.8. It will be interesting to see if there are other aftershocks coming; local news seemed to imply that if it didn't happen in the first 24 hours it wasn't going to.

[DarkAxel]

I think I may have felt the quake. It's hard to tell, though, because I was ten feet off of the ground nailing floor joists at the time. Ten minutes after, the news came on over the radio and said there was an earthquake near DC. If the earthquake had hit closer and been stronger, I'd have been fucked right proper. Houses aren't as stable during the construction phase.

[Tater Raider]

There was a 4.5 aftershock around 1AM. I think it woke me, because something did about that time. Fortunately, 4.5 is a lot less intense than a 5.8. It will be interesting to see if there are other aftershocks coming; local news seemed to imply that if it didn't happen in the first 24 hours it wasn't going to.

Local news was wrong. Aftershocks can happen many years after the initial quake. Earthquakes in the New Madrid Fault Zone that happen now are considered aftershocks of the 1812 earthquake, mainly because the fault moves so painfully slow. They can be stronger as well, but that designates them the main shock and the initial quake becomes a foreshock.

Don't take this as fear mongering. I feel the more you know the better you can prepare.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104132652.htm

[solrac7]

I know we're not allowed to bug-out to walmart etc. if the apocalypse happens, But what if we're already there? My kids and I were in REI (recreational equipment inc - an outdoor/camping/climbing co-op store) when the earthquake hit !!! My younger (15) daughter turned to me and with a big grin said "hey, at least we're in the best place in the world for it to happen!!!" all the store associates and shoppers got a big kick out of the quake - the building shook and all of the signs suspended from the ceiling swung wildly back and forth. Actually it was more fun (and a little unsettling) than scary.

Cb