As I was sitting here early this morning (around 1 am), all of a sudden, everything in the house started shaking.  I thought it was just the wind as we were supposed to get some pretty bad storms last night.  I was just flipping channels and heard that there was an earthquake in IL.  Now, I know jack squat about earthquakes, but it was a 4.5 ???  I know most of you in California are saying "So, what's the big deal?"  I was just wondering, how many of us have been in one?

I heard about that!!  I immediatley thought of you when I saw where it hit!  Glad to hear you are okay. :)

No, I've never experienced one myself, but I hear that one can almost imagine what an earthquake feels like during a round of REALLY good sex! ;) ;D

Yeah I felt it too.  I live in Iowa and have never experienced one either.  So it was weird.  It was about 1:15 AM, I think.  I thought it was just rain hitting my windows (I was on the computer at the time, half-asleep) and then this morning I found out is was an earthquake!

I've been in one.  It wasn't that awful of one, but it was still a earthquake, and our home insurance rates went up because of it.  >:(

With ours, I was sitting and playing on the computer when I felt a 'shake'..never having been in one, it didn't really register--honestly, I thought it was our dog rolling around.  He's 100+ lbs, and sometimes when he rolls around, it DOES make our house vibrate.  Anyway, I hollered back at him to "lay down!"  (I know, mean doggy mom  ;)) and then I noticed the window shaking...he DOESN'T usually casue that!  But anyway, I then got down on the floor with him and apologized and just sat there--I didn't know what you are supposed to do!  It stopped a few minutes later, then my thought went to my kids--one was at school, the other was at a preschool painting class--so, I drove up past the school, everything looked okay..then I went to her painting class and all the kids were sitting in a different room together, to which my daughter saw me and said "Mom!  There was a earthquake!"  I talked to the owner of the school she was at, and he said the kids were all fine throughout, they just wondered why he and his wife had moved them all.  Then he asked "How's town look?"

Needless to say, here there wasn't any real damage that I know of, though some of the bigger cities had some...but, all in all, it wasn't that big of a deal to me.   :-\\

Heck, I've done tornadoes and hurricanes too.  They were probably more "exciting".   ;D

I've experienced three earthquakes. The weirdest thing is that they all occured in the middle of the night and each time I woke up just as they were about to begin :-\\

Any given spot in New England gets a detectable earthquake once every twenty or thirty years.
The only one we had that I remember feeling was when I was 13.  Loooong time ago.  I was lying on my bed, reading, when the whole house shook for about seven seconds.  It was quite mild by earthquake standards.  I thought it was one of those huge trucks that occasionally rumbled by our house, but the shaking was too thorough and profound to be a truck.
I went downstairs and my dad said we just had an earthquake!

There was an earthquake that ran down from Vermont through the Connecticut River valley a couple of years ago.  Some people in my area detected a minor tremor, others did not.  I was fast asleep and didn't know about it until the morning.  My housemate had one of those Cockatiel birds.  She started going nuts about 10 minutes before it happened.

There was an earthquake that ran down from Vermont through the Connecticut River valley a couple of years ago.  Some people in my area detected a minor tremor, others did not.  I was fast asleep and didn't know about it until the morning.  My housemate had one of those Cockatiel birds.  She started going nuts about 10 minutes before it happened.



We felt that. It woke us up about 7 a.m. one Saturday Morning. At first we thought it might have been a truck that went by but it lasted too long. I turned to Carlos and ask, "Is that what I think it is?" He said it was. He went back to sleep but I was awake by then. I got the morning paper as I was reading it, there was an aftershock. It was kind of strange because it felt a bit like the entire house was being lifted up. We are about 50-60 miles from the epicenter. Can't recall the size. Things just rattled here-even the pictures on the wall didn't get skewed.

When I was in Greece, there were tremors all the time. I can't recall how many times I would just be sitting there and things would start shaking. But one time, we were hit with a 5.8 quake and we were about 20 miles from the epicenter. Scared the sh** out of me to say the least.


I did think about you Cheer and I think there are a few others on this board from that area when I read about that this morning. Glad to hear you are alright.




Cat

Wow, I hadn't heard about that. (I listen to books on tape all day at work) Glad you are ok, Cheer.

I have been in tons that I never felt, usually overnight and I hear about it the next morning.  I live right on a major fault line. 

I do remember one, though.  I was in 8th grade and spending the night at my grandmothers.  I was asleep having a dream about playing a game on the bed with my sister.  In the dream she got up and started jumping on the bed.  I told her she was gonna get in trouble then woke up and the bed was still shaking.  My grandma's room was attached to mine...when she turned on the light, I was in the doorway.  She said I looked like I had just seen a ghost. 

No major damage done, a couple of houses lost chimneys but nothing major.  Still scared the crap out of me and they keep telling us Utah is overdue for the "big one".  :o

  Still scared the crap out of me and they keep telling us Utah is overdue for the "big one".  :o




I have heard that many places are due for the "big one". And we are planning to go to L.A. in Dec.  :-\\



Cat



Cat

I have heard that many places are due for the "big one". And we are planning to go to L.A. in Dec.  :-\\



Cat



I wouldn't worry about it.  If you spend your time worrying, you won't have any fun.

I wouldn't worry about it.  If you spend your time worrying, you won't have any fun.



EVERYTIME we go to L.A. that is aways in the back of my mind. That is why I don't like going to L.A.



Cat

EVERYTIME we go to L.A. that is aways in the back of my mind. That is why I don't like going to L.A.

Cat

Now, now, don’t get upset or worried over earthquakes in LA....

I’ve been in the LA area since ’95 and only experienced three minor quakes (moved here after the Northridge quake).
Except for one, they were pretty uneventful, the only thing that was odd was running out of my house in my underwear watching the transformers on the power lines in my neighborhood blow up in blue sparks, kind cool actually, until the power went out...other than that, not much more rumbling than when an big heavy truck drives by your home. Oh yeah, my cats seemed to predict when the quakes happen, about a few seconds before it hits, they all seem to jump straight up in the air, almost hovering for a few seconds, weird...

Seriously, you have MANY more things to worry about when coming to LA over and above earthquakes. There’s the infamous LA drivers/traffic/SIG alerts, high prices/costs for everything, phony people, smog, Jack in the Box, forest & hillside fires, LAPD whacking your brains out, etc...the list goes on...

Earthquakes? Well, being a So-Cal resident all my life, I've experienced quite a few of them. In fact, I remember 12 years ago today (June 28, 1992), we had two of them in the early morning; one at 5 A.M. (Pacific Time) and another one three hours later.

And, of course, the one from ten years ago this January. That one really shook us up. At the time, we were living in a mobile home, which was obviously very mobile during the quake. Just about everything fell down off the shelves; our TV fell face down on the carpet, but remained intact; the house shifted off its foundation a couple feet north. So we were out of our house for three months so that it could be repaired. School was closed for two weeks. (By the way, that day was a Monday, but even if there was no earthquake I still wouldn't have gone to school because it was supposed to be a Martin Luther King holiday.) During the three months we were out of our home, we lived in various motels, mostly in the San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena, Arcadia, that neck of the woods); the main reason we settled out there was to escape the aftershocks, so when I went back to school, it was a very long commute for my mom and me (she took me to school most days), which meant we had to get up between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning. I handled everything pretty well.

There have been many dire predictions about a "big one" in New England.  If Boston got hit by a major quake, it would be catastrophic.  A lot of the city is built on land reclaimed from the harbor using 18th century engineering.  The way the  business district would crumble would make 9/11 look like a walk in the park.

I've already lived through the "big one" (Loma Prieta 1989, 7.1) and it was hell on earth. Not only was the town my dad worked in destroyed, but he was elected to crawl under the high school he worked at to check gas lines. :P

It was also pretty upsetting to see most of that town living in tents all over the place for fear of buildings collapsing, along with seeing the Bay Bridge take a nosedive and highway 880 just collapse on itself. Not a fun time and I sure in the hell am not looking forward to the next one.

I have heard that many places are due for the "big one". And we are planning to go to L.A. in Dec.  :-\\



Cat
I've been through the Loma prieta earthquake and a number of smaller ones.The "big one" is possible in alot of places,but the biggest danger in in countries where the earthquakes are just as big,but building standards are lax or nonexistent.That's why countries like Iran and Mexico have many times more deaths from quakes---buildings aren't reinforced or anything.Places like California and Japan have many buildings made to withstand quakes,and building methods are being studied after each major quake.Cheers!


Cat
:o :o

I've already lived through the "big one" (Loma Prieta 1989, 7.1) and it was hell on earth. Not only was the town my dad worked in destroyed, but he was elected to crawl under the high school he worked at to check gas lines. :P
I remember that one too; it happened at the time of the World Series (which, incidentally, was played between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics), which had to be postponed because of the quake. Of course, I live(d) about 400 miles away from there, but I remember hearing about it on the news.

I remember that one too; it happened at the time of the World Series (which, incidentally, was played between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics), which had to be postponed because of the quake. Of course, I live(d) about 400 miles away from there, but I remember hearing about it on the news.


A lady I work with is a huge San Francisco fan...she happened to be at that game.  Scared her half to death.

First off I hope everyone who was in one was alright. The only thing to ever happen around here...that I know of, hapened as I sat downtown in my car back in Spring of '84...I think. I thought my car was moving when it wasn't...we were feeling the effects of a tornado near Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1987 I went to work with my best friend and his dad in Tracy, California and they had an earthquake the night we arrived...I flew back home the next day!

I have been through so many earthquakes, it is impossible to count them all.  Some of the biggest ones were:

1971  Mag 6.7  San Fernando
1992  Mag 7.3  Landers
1994  Mag 6.7  Northridge
1999  Mag 7.2  Hector Mine

And those are just the large ones.  I moved to the Bay Area in 1990, so went through multiple aftershocks of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.  In fact, when I was on the phone making preperations to move to Alabama, LA had a 3.4 quake rumble through.  I guess that was it's way of saying goodbye.  ;D

Myself, quakes do not bother me, and never have.  I see them as a lot of fun.  It is huricanes and tornadoes that terrify me.  Give me a quake any time over one of those.

For those that have never been in one, most are not that bad.  If you have been parked at the side of the road and a truck drove by, you know what it is like.  A few shakes, and then a rolling motion.  Like I said, no big deal.

Of course, here in this area, I now worry about the New Madrid fault letting go.  When that one goes, it will be a real killer.  The last quakes there were 3 from 1811 to 1812, and they were all estimated to be Magnitude 8.0 or higher.  To give an idea of the damage, the quake was felt NATIONWIDE!  New York AND Seattle both reported damage from this monster.  Memphis was almost destroyed, and this fault is overdue for another one.

http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/

We felt that. It woke us up about 7 a.m. one Saturday Morning. At first we thought it might have been a truck that went by but it lasted too long. I turned to Carlos and ask, "Is that what I think it is?" He said it was. He went back to sleep but I was awake by then. I got the morning paper as I was reading it, there was an aftershock. It was kind of strange because it felt a bit like the entire house was being lifted up. We are about 50-60 miles from the epicenter. Can't recall the size. Things just rattled here-even the pictures on the wall didn't get skewed.

I did think about you Cheer and I think there are a few others on this board from that area when I read about that this morning. Glad to hear you are alright.

Cat

:) That was the scene at my house for that quake too.  We thought it was the train that runs behind our house, at first.  But it lasted too long and the vibration was much different.  Made the house feel like it was swaying rather than the usual teeth rattling rumble from the train.

For those that have never been in one, most are not that bad.  If you have been parked at the side of the road and a truck drove by, you know what it is like.  A few shakes, and then a rolling motion.  Like I said, no big deal.



Sure, as long as you aren't next to (or in) a crumbling building. ;)

That New Madrid one would be scary.  Where it is located I can see it being felt all over the country if it lets go.

My dog and I were in my house (I wasn't in the dog house at that particular time but happen to be in there right now!) anyway, we both felt a tremor, it was an odd sensation akin to momentary weightlessness.  Neither of us liked it at all :-X

That New Madrid one would be scary.  Where it is located I can see it being felt all over the country if it lets go.


The New Madrid Fault is in Missouri.  Not that it will do you much good, since last time it went, huge sections of the US were damaged.  TO give an idea, the Mississippi River actually flowed BACKWARDS for over a week after the last shaker there.

scary stuff.  Not looking forward to that.

I remember that one too; it happened at the time of the World Series (which, incidentally, was played between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics), which had to be postponed because of the quake. Of course, I live(d) about 400 miles away from there, but I remember hearing about it on the news.
:o :o :oI was a cctually in that one,but our house was built to withstand them.Cheers!

:o :o :oI was a cctually in that one,but our house was built to withstand them.Cheers!

Good for you, Marian. ;) Unfortunately, the house we were living in in 1994 did not withstand the Northridge quake, since it was a mobile home...but that's all behind us now.