Epicenter.
Last night Orange County finally had the earthquake I’ve been anticipating for so long. It wasn’t much as far as earthquakes go, only a 3.1 on the Richter. Small potatoes, except that the epicenter was, like, right up our asses.
In 24 years in California, that was the only time I’ve ever been right at the epicenter of a quake. It started with a sharp jolt and a loud cracking sound and generally scared the bejeebers out of everyone in the house. It was about 9:30 p.m. and I’d just gotten Boolie down to sleep and the boys settled in their beds; once the quake hit, the kids didn’t settle back in until nearly 11:00, and Ben and I were wakeful most of the night.
Because sometimes a smallish quake is a foreshock. And the idea of being at the epicenter of a large quake scared the living shit out of both of us.
It was our kids’ first earthquake; the last palpable quake was before Ben and I were married. Sam was worried sick and crying a little. Matt didn’t say much and appeared to blow it off. And Boolie was convinced it was caused by the airplanes going in and out of nearby John Wayne Airport. Took a little while to calm Sam down, but we piled all the kids into our bed and eventually got down to sleep.
I’m still a little edgy today. That sucker was a wake-up call for sure. Here’s hoping the next big quake isn’t on our piddly little local fault line.
5 comments
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GoingLikeSixty says:
Whoa!
I was in San Diego once at the “homo office” where they had lots of fat women working - I mean F A T. There was a rumbler and the CA folks said “feel that? Earthquake.” I thought it was one of the tubs walking past the conference room!
We live near the New Madrid Fault.
Yikes.
Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:05 am
Gretchen says:
Actually, on more than one occasion I’ve had a very heavy person walk down the hall at the office and mistaken it for an earthquake.
That New Madrid fault could produce a real pisser of a quake; I’ve read about it.
Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:47 am
Karen says:
I grew up in Alaska where earthquakes are a daily occurance. I have to say, I’ll take an earthquake over a tornado or a hurricane any day of the year and twice on Sunday….
Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:20 pm
VintageP says:
I would rank natural disasters in terms of most predictability as hurricane, tornado, and then earthquakes. You know far in advance of when the hurricane is coming. You know far enough to take cover with a tornado assuming you have a weather alert radio. Earthquakes are concerning to me because you don’t get any warning. Seeing collapsed bridges in San Francisco and Northridge after their earthquakes wasn’t comforting either. I think twice about stopping under highway overpasses ever since.
Saturday, March 29, 2008 3:02 pm
Tara says:
Yikes!! I don’t know what would be worse - an earthquake or hurricane. I’ve lived through my share of hurricanes, and they aren’t *that* bad. An earthquake can do you in in 5 seconds, whereas it takes a hurricane 5 hours.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 5:29 pm