pain, i had my first earthquake experience today, ill give you an understanding of what it feels like.

Imagine you are microscopic in size, and youre microscopic house is built on a 12 inch vibrator with variable speed setting.

Imagine youre at home, minding your own business when someone comes along and turns the vibrator to low and slow.

I felt he vibration in my legs, my legs even felt funny for a few minutes afterwords, it felt like i was riding a vibrator.
I will promise you that if a severe earthquake ever hits I will surely die cause Ill just be in shock about whats going on before I can even think what to do. Today me and my brother were both at home and we were busy arguing over who was shaking the house and trying to screw with the other, it took us almost 10 minutes after the quake to realize we had even been in an earthquake and it was in fact not one of the brothers messing with the other.

:(

I had no idea we had so many DC/Baltimore-area earthers. I knew of a few, Z, Alena, Alicia, etc, but not most of those posting here.

And correct HL, we had no idea what you were supposed to do so in my office we stood in doorways. Then we went outside where we decided leaning against the building probably wasn't wise either.

Stairs tend to fall first if the quake is really bad, even though the other parts of the building may still stand. Plus you might get stampeded by other guys in panic who had the same idea as you and get injured in what would have been a rather safe building. So don't.

Elevators actually provide you better protection than a table or doorframe or whatever, in case the building collapses however the buildings are designed and built to resist quite serious shakes. But you risk getting stuck in the cabin in the (most likely) situation that the power gets cut, so don't do that either. Find some shelter, wait the end of the quake, evacuate on stairs.

My philosophy is to run towards the kitchen during an earthquake, so if the building does collapse, at least you have some food to eat while you wait to be rescued.

whatever.... it was a giant man eating worm.... get with it people

I'm just glad I no longer work in retail.

i find it rather comical when the west coasters scoff at the east coasters reacting to this earthquake.

yes, its minor compared to quakes in your ares, however even despite the differing geology, its not a normal event for the east coast. its abnormal and a rare event. the buildings are not hardened for such an event, there arnt many established and well rehearsed plans for such an event, and there arnt many around who remember the last quake of this magnitude. you can act jaded if you want, but its pretty tarded.

lets see a hurricane, mass flood, or tornado outbreak hit the west coast and then point and laugh at all the hippies panicking. what? we deal with tornadoes and hurricanes all the time! whats the big deal?


its all about region, event frequency, preparedness, and psychological impact. you can not compare a 5.8 in LA and a 5.8 in Virginia i dont care what you say.

well we are about to be hit by a hurricane as well, lol

i grew up in NC and now live south of miami. i know all about the hurricanes. Irene is scheduled to wipe my families NC beach house off the map as of now