#memoryarchives

I woke up confused if the earthquake that I’d just experienced was reality or a dream. It was big and the fact I don’t remember anything else lead me to believe I’d dreamed it. And I had. Not a surprise being I watched a documentary last night on Christchurch, New Zealand where they experienced some narly quakes over like a 9 month period that just destroyed so much of their town. It was crazy.

When I turned up the tv I realized SoCal had awoken to another quake of sizeable measure. Did I just dream that quake?? Lol

I grew up here, which is earthquake country. When I was reading about the latest quake the article said yesterday’s had been the largest quake in California in 5 years. No quakes over 6 since then it said. I’m like there’s no way I know we’ve had ones bigger than that between now and 2014. Just the one I wrote about a week or so ago was a 5.4 and that was a good shaker. Thanks to google I’ve noted we’ve had shakers greater than 6 at least 2 times in the last five years. I also read we are the most seismically active location in our country. Oh yay.

But I’ve grown up with earthquakes. And big ones!! The advantage we have here being so rural is that there’s not a lot of chances of dying in these quakes. Most buildings are retrofitted by now. Brick buildings don’t really exist. We have no high rises above 5 stories in the entire county. And those are few and far between. The homes just rock and roll. Sometimes the Victorians fall off their foundations. I’ve always refused to live in one for that very reason. I also heard they sway and creak like crazy. But you have to imagine those huge homes have been through possibly hundreds of quakes.

Everyone is always afraid of “the big one,” they’ve talked about it my whole life. Every time a good one starts going that’s always the first thought. Followed by where is everybody? Then give instructions to the kids based on that.

The last really significant one we had was 2010. I still remember that day so very clear in my mind. I’d been out for hours with my friend taking his senior pics. I had taken the kids with me since he was a close friend and didn’t mind. Before we had left for the day I had noticed my son had brought a booklet home from school called “Living on Shaky Ground.” It was a very informative book, I thought, as I read through it. I’d always tried to be informed on earthquakes because ya know if something scares you it’s best you learn more about it. As an adult I’m not really scared of them. But everyone is always startled by them lol.

I read through the book and i was telling the kids about earthquakes and what sort of things to do based on the book. They were only 3 and 7 at that time but ya know we still talk about it.

After a fun few hours of picture taking we decide we are hungry so we decide to go to the mall to eat. Always a win/win cause there’s so many choices.

The kids decide they want some bk and I order them their food. I settle them at a table near that side of the food court. Me and my friend decide we want Mexican food and take off towards the other side of the food court. My friends aunt was sitting next to my kids with her kids so I felt fine leaving them to get food.

We ordered and we were waiting for the food. All of a sudden there was a very strong jolt of an earthquake and you hear nearly everyone say in unison “whoa.” And no sooner the words left our mouth it starts to shake again and it’s shaking hard. My eyes are wide and so is my friends as we stare at each other. All hell breaks loose but all I think about is my poor kids at the table alone, like 30 feet away. So I don’t run but best believe I ran that day. Ceiling tiles were falling from above, tiles were cracking. People were taking off out the doors. All on my mind was the kids and I’m sure I was there in like 5 seconds but ya know it seems like a lifetime in those moments.

They were both sitting there wide eyed and motionless and I told them let’s get under the table. After all, I’d long read what you should do in an earthquake. Genuinely running out of a building is not a good idea. This is because more things are likely to fall outside such as siding, chimneys, windows, power lines, you name it. Buildings are much less likely to fall in areas prone to earthquakes as they’ve been built to withstand them. Climbing under something sturdy is most ideal, but if not available getting into an area free of windows and objects that could hurt you is your next bet.

I was disappointed in the majority from the mall running outside. It was especially stupid to me because the whole entire front of the food court is like 30 foot windows. All glass and they ran right towards it. Dumb as fuck but the noise in there was intense.

When we were under the table I told the kids that we were ok and it was an earthquake like we’d literally just read about that morning. I said once the shaking stops, we will walk to the car as quickly as possible. I already had thought of what I’d do if I was in pretty much any spot around in an earthquake. I know the mall is pretty close to sea level so the biggest concern at that point was a tsunami. I wanted to get to higher ground ASAP.

After the shaking stopped the kids and i exited the mall. There were maybe five other people under tables. Hundreds were outside. They were standing around, looking shocked. Everyone was trying to use their cell phones but those were down. I didn’t know where my friend went and I looked around but no luck. I hoped he was with his aunt. As we walked through the lot there were sizeable cracks all through the parking lot. That was pretty crazy.

What was also crazy is so many people were just standing there. There were a few people that I said as I walked by “you need to get out of here we are in tsunami zone.” One was like “oh yeah I guess that is true huh?”

I loaded up the kids and buckled them in and took a quick right off the side of the mall. I wanted to check on my grandma and her house was right up the hill, safe from tsunamis. There was a little traffic but not much as most were still standing around. Alright if you guys wanna drown so be it. Not us.

When we got to my grandmas my mom and grandma pulled up. They had been eating at a restaurant that wasn’t too far from the mall. They were also fine, but we were all rattled.

Electricity was out. You could hear sirens all through out the town. We decided the best place for us all to be was my parents house, which is on top of a very big hill and definitely safe. I was trying to prepare myself and the kids for aftershocks. In the most powerful earthquake I’d been in during my lifetime (1992) we got two huge aftershocks in the night and early morning that caused almost more damage than the initial quake. And something about quakes at night makes them even more intimidating.

Grandmas house was a mess. I thought about my own house and my poor cat. My mom loaded up the kids and my grandma and I ran home to try and check on the cat and the house.

When I got home it was starting to get dark. It was early January and the sun went down early.

All my cabinets were open and dishes and food was a muck all over. Some things were broken and I did my best to clean it up. Things were all over the living room. I took down the rest of the pics that didn’t fall and moved everything close to edges further back or on the floor. In my room and bathroom it was similar stories. Nothing too precious was lost except the beautiful center piece I made for my daughter’s baptism. That was sad.

I couldn’t find my cat. I kept calling to her but nothing. I tried to pick up all the glass I could.

I left home and stayed at my parents. Lights stayed off for a long time and so did cell service but oddly enough internet on phones kicked back rather quick. Everyone was checking in on Facebook and reporting what was up. There was extensive damage around the area, but nobody was seriously hurt or dead. And a tsunami did not happen. Even the aftershocks were mild and the kids slept right through them. They didn’t seem traumatized so that was a positive. The 92 quake definitely scared the shit out of me as a child but I hoped that I handled this one ok with them. It was also the first time I’d been in a public place during a big one however.

It’s hard to tell how an earthquake felt by the magnitude sometimes. It depends on how far away you are from the epicenter and how deep it was. Closer and shallower are going to be the most intense. Sometimes they are violent, sometimes more like steady rocking. Sometimes a mix. Once I even heard one coming before I felt it. Sounded like a train rushing towards my front door and passed through just the same. The magnitude for the 92 quake was a 7.2 and the 2010 was a 6.9. But then again last year we had a 6.1 I slept through and the one a week and a half ago was a 5.9 and that one you wouldn’t sleep through.

Earthquakes are alright. I mean they have to be because you cannot predict or control them. Mother Nature is in charge and she reminds us. Tsunamis do scare the shit outta me (I have some experiences with those too) but I’d much rather live with earthquakes than tornadoes or hurricanes. Blizzards and snow storms. No thank you.