I was standing at the gym looking at the television screen (anything to avoid doing actual gym stuff) when the CNN screen is showing all these panorama shots of LA from the top of their building at Sunset and Cahuenga. The closed captioning is reading something like, "no damage to be seen from this viewpoint, so smoke, no sirens can be heard. But Los Angeles has just suffered a major earthquake." At this point pretty much the entire gym is standing there staring at the screen and we all exchange looks, "When?" Apparently recently. "Where" Uh, just East of here in Chino Hills. "Huh." And then we all go back to working out while glancing at the TV.
The facts from the AP:
The quake struck at 11:42 a.m. PDT. The U.S. Geological Survey estimate the quake at magnitude 5.8 but was revised downward to a 5.4, centered 29 miles East-Southeast of downtown Los Angeles near Chino Hills in San Bernadino County. More than a dozen aftershocks quickly followed, the largest estimated a magnitude 3.8.
I rode my bike home and as I am walking in the door the phone is ringing already. It's Lyle, "Is everything okay?"
Seems fine.
"Anything broken?"
I don't know. I just got home.
So as I walk the house straining to find ANYTHING fallen or askew, Lyle fills me in on how the earthquake felt at his work which is further away from the epicenter than our house . He tells me that there were two big shakes and that by the second one most of the people at work had run outside to the parking lot. He also said that the two first big ones were followed by possibly ten aftershocks that he noticeably felt.
By this time I'd completed my tour of the house and was (not at all) disappointed to find everything exactly the way I left it. And I promise you this house is filled with opportunities to crash and go crooked. Blissfully our house is untouched. And I can't figure out what the hell I was doing at the gym that I wouldn't' feel the building go boom. I swear, I don't work out that hard.
Feel free to click on the photo to see a larger version of map. On the far left in green, Lyle at work. Near the center but still to the right, in red, me on my bike. In blue way over on the right, the epicenter.
5 comments:
No damage here neither...just felt a strong jolt and then a rolling sensation for a few seconds...glad you're ok!
Maybe it's the building I'm in (1920s brick building - third floor), but I was definitely moving. Just a little, then much more for quite a long time - at least a minute. I was wondering if standing in the doorway was really a good idea and oh my god, what if the wall comes down or the roof, like the brick buildings in the Northridge quake - and here I am in this dragon tshirt and ratty old shorts.
I was shakin' like a gingko leaf!
Nope, no damage here either. I am in the South bay.
Was standing in Koo Koo Roo waiting on a salad to be made. A woman sitting next to me, her eyes get big and she says "are we having an earthquake?" I paused and said yes, yes we are. This is a rolling quake, does not seem too bad. She said she was from the middle part of the country where they had Tornadoes and Hurricanes, this was her first earthquake. The woman sitting a few tables away was sucking on a chicken bone in a way I had never seen. Her eyes were big and she was glaring at me as I said that this was not too bad a quake.
I got the salad and drove the convertible back to work under blue skies. Glad everyone is ok.
Here's hoping you boys are all safe down there.
Glad everyone is safe and reasonably sound. HUG!
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