October 30, 2007

[Heather. Redmon.]

Wow Jack! I'm glad you're ok. Do you know yet what it was on the Richter scale? I hope there was no major damage in SC and surrounding bay area.

Edit: 5.6, thanks Steve. Man, that is pretty big.

[Steve Durand]

5.6 on the Richter

It was on the eastern side of San Jose

Edit: I just noticed that Jack had all of the info linked on his original post

[Caravan Ray]

Edit: 5.6, thanks Steve. Man, that is pretty big.

Yes it is. Australia's only major earthquake hit my hometown of Newcastle in 1989. It was 5.6.

The 1989 Newcastle earthquake was a magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurring on Thursday 28 December 1989, at 10:27am. It was one of Australia's most serious natural disasters, killing 13 people and injuring more than 160, while the damage bill has been estimated at around A$4 billion (which includes an insured loss of about A$1 billion). The Newcastle earthquake was the first Australian earthquake in recorded history to claim human lives.

That sure was a scary day.

[Heather. Redmon.]

Yeah, I've been through a few big ones including Whittier and Northridge so I understand, believe me!

[Billy's Little Trip]

5.6 is big, but Cali is built for earth quakes, so we probably don't get as much damager as Australia, such as bridges and building. But it still knocks all the stuff off our shelves at home, etc.

[Heather. Redmon.]

True. It's the aftershocks that are the worst. This is what's reported about the Northridge aftershocks

"AFTERSHOCKS
Thousands of aftershocks occurred after the main earthquake. For example, a magnitude 5.9 aftershock occurred about 1 minute after the mainshock. A magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred 11 hours later. Aftershocks are a concern because they can trigger the collapse of structures weakened by the mainshock."

Yuck. I hope everything is ok out there.

[Steve Durand]

Yeah, I've been through a few big ones including [url=http://en.[CENSORED].org/wiki/Whittier_Narrows_earthquake]Whittier[/url] and Northridge so I understand, believe me!

I was living in Hawaii when the Northridge quake happened but I remember the TV coverage and shots of Balboa blvd with flames shooting out of the cracks at the same time as water was gushing down the street from the broken water pipes.

And the aftershocks from that one were in the 5.5-6.0 range.

[jack]

yeah, all's swell in santa cruz. or so it seems. i haven't heard any sirens or anything. it was more a shaker than a roller, but it was pretty long, maybe 30 seconds of increasingly building intensity, which i think is what freaked me out the most. usually, you might feel a couple second shaker but this was totally different. it was long enough for me to actually think about whether or not i should go outside while it was still going on.

san jose probably got the brunt of it.

[Reist]

I have never experienced an earthquake. We're more likely to get tornadoes up here - there were a few ones that almost touched down by my sister's house a couple months ago.

[roymond]

Had that one in Mexico City where my room on the 20th floor was swaying way the frick back and forth forever. FOREVER. and lots of strong aftershocks. That's the last one I want to feel close up. Glad it wasn't too damaging, Jack.

QotD: I should probably wear them more than I do. At least they're only reading glasses, but I feel my eyes slowly changing. When I'm well rested and it's light I'm still 20/20 or close to it. When I tire and it gets dark things start blurring in the distance, and close up goes all mushy. not too bad yet thankfully. I don't think I could put stuff in my eyes. I'll get some geeky or designer frames and re-design myself one day.

[fluffy]

This was my first real quake since moving to SF. Yay!

My whole apartment building was shaking, or at least swaying gently. Amazingly none of my precarious and tall media shelving fell over. I'm willing to credit the construction of the building for that.

I wish the dang worthless news updates would have striped their content-free "NEWS AT TEN" crap over ads instead of over the intro part of House, though.

[fluffy]

Wow, on the news, they just mentioned that BART was unaffected by the earthquake, but earlier today a man was found dead on the tracks. They only even mentioned it because it was tangentially related to the earthquake. That makes me very sad.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Yeah, I was wondering how you held up Fluf. I didn't know if it was your first, but I thought, damn, only been in Cali for a couple months and got your shizzle shook.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Fluffy & Blue... matter & antimatter

I kid, I kid

[fluffy]

Wasn't my first quake entirely, just my first since moving here. There was a smaller (but closer) earthquake when I was here for my job interview. That only lasted a few seconds but it also woke me up, and since it was closer and I was at my sister's place, things shook much faster and more violently.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Might be a good time to strap anything tall and/or top heavy, to the wall. Anything valuable on the shelves, earth quake putty for the win. After Jack announced the quake, I read that from that particular earth quake location, that there is a 30% chance of a 5.0+ after shock within the next seven days. Of course that's a 70% chance there wont be, lol. But after shocks over the next 7 days are 100%.

[wages]

QoTD: No glasses... though everyone in my family wears them. I probably should get my eyes checked. I ustacould (that's a Missouri word for "used to be able to") read all the letters on the eye chart, but now the bottom row or two are hazy.

How do you spell addicts?

I can't believe no one else took this opportunity to say: S-O-N-G-F-I-G-H-T-!

Yesterday was pretty rough. ... The worst part? You can't get on the board and bitch about the board being down!

Egg-zack-lee

.....Phil made Spencer........

I read that as "Phil Spector". ha!

wow, i just felt the biggest earthquake i've ever felt in 16 years living in california.

it shook my little house enough to scare the shit out of me to run outside. stuff flying off my shelves. crazy.

The only earthquake I ever noticed that I experienced in California was when I was watching "Harry and the Hendersons" at the theater with my dad circa late '80s. The projector or the film "slipped" (or whatever) and the movie had to be started over, so we saw the first 5 minutes twice. I *believe* that was a few months or so before the one where they showed baseball players walking out of the Giants stadium carrying a piece of the stadium. ahh... the gray memories seen through rose-colored glasses of childhood (EDIT: I'm saving that last bit "the gray..." for future lyrics!).

We're more likely to get tornadoes up here - there were a few ones that almost touched down by my sister's house a couple months ago.

We get tornado warnings a few times a year, but West Plains is situated in a way that they seem to go around the actual city. Unfortunately, my sister-in-law's boyfriend's cousin's family lived north of town and they weren't so luck (lost a kid and their home this year). Seems tornadoes immediately 'round here strike town about every 20 years. Scary shit.

One time when I lived in Tennessee, my stepdad was driving me to a little league game. We drove down a stretch of highway and everything looked normal. We got to the game and found that it was canceled due to tornadoes. Not 5 minutes later, we were back on the highway and it was total devastation. Homes had been relocated, trees uprooted, and people in their yards shaking their heads in disbelief. And fortunately for us, we missed it by literally 5 minutes. If we had been running late, I may not even be here today!

...and now...I'm all caught up on roll call. Yaaaaaaaa!

Oh, and the "ä", "ë", "ï", and "ö" thing is getting old. There! I said it. I feel a whole lot better.

[Caravan Ray]

Question of the day: Do you wear glasses or contacts? Why or why not?

Of course, 40 years of vigorous and relentless mastubation has left me with the eyesight of myopic marsupial mole with a strong dislike for carrots. But I refuse to wear glasses because I don't want the chicks to think I'm some sort of a nerd.

[fluffy]

YOU WIN THE THREAD, SIR.

[anti-m]

Yeah, I was wondering how you held up Fluf. I didn't know if it was your first, but I thought, damn, only been in Cali for a couple months and got your shizzle shook.

Actually the PNW gets some biggish earthquakes too... The last bigger one clocked in at 6.8 in 2001. It was centered just outside of Olympia, Washington and was felt all the way from Portland to Seattle.

http://www.pnsn.org/SEIS/EQ_Special/WEB ... lcome.html

We don't get the quakes as often as Cali, but we are due for "a big one"... or so the doomsday prophets are saying.

Anyway, glad you Cali folk are all OK. I'll have to check in with my little brother!

[Paco Del Stinko]

I too am glad to hear that everyone's OK. I've never been in a noticeable earthquake and if I ever found myself in a swaying 20 story building, I would not go more than a flight up for the rest of my life. Let's see; you have giant fire, escalating earthquakes...what time does the tsunami come crashing in? Throw in a hurricane and you can have an elemental grand slam.