Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Earthquake.

Well, that was exciting.

The funniest part was when people got back from their lunch breaks and were actually disappointed that they completely missed it. Apparently it was so light here in NY that you had to be in a building to notice it - anyone who was outside on the sidewalk didn't feel it at all. Here on the 9th floor of the Really Big Children's Publishing House, there was a distinct jolting followed by a sway.

The building shakes five hundred times a day from subway trains passing underneath it, but this was entirely different. I was actually a bit spooked because having been at the World Trade Center, my mind immediately went to a much scarier place than "mild earthquake", and when everybody around me started saying "What should we do", I said "We should probably go downstairs". They all followed me down, we found most of the company out on the street too so it wasn't just me. The smartphone set got right on the investigation, though, and within a couple of minutes had found out that it was an earthquake. I was pretty relieved, actually.

10 comments:

my2fish said...

glad you're alright. we felt a very slight tremor in the Detroit area - not enough to get out of my seat about it, though.

bonnie said...

I was pretty sure I was overreacting, but I was also thinking that a few people I used to work with are alive today because their immediate reaction to something distinctly weird happening was to head for the nearest exit stair. Decided to go with the overreaction.

Baydog said...

Missed it completely while out in the car. My daughter said the house shook sideways for about 3 seconds. No apparent damage though. I wish I were there!

Buck said...

Felt it up here in Albany. My monitor was rocking back and forth.

my2fish said...

bonnie, I didn't mean to imply any over-reacting on your part (and hope I didn't come across that way).

I think I would have done the same as you in NYC.

but the tremors I felt in Detroit could hardly be noticed.

bonnie said...

No, no! It was just that honestly, it was pretty light here, too. As I said to my colleagues as we were all standing outside waiting to see if anything else happened, California people would be laughing at us.

Now a friend of mine who was living in California at the time of the Northridge quake recognized this for the mild quake that it was & was immediately able to tell his employees that this wasn't a big deal. Reported later though that he did get into a bit of a debate with someone who really thought a 5.9 in VA was going to "pancake" buildings in NYC.

Bursledon Blogger said...

definitely not an over reaction, very sensible reaction - just be glad it was mild and everyone was ok

ol philosophizer said...

My sister lives in Brooklyn and told me that the tremor emptied her apartment building quicker than an offer of free pizza at Vinnie Spumoni's Pasta Emporium. And now you have a hurricane on the way! Wasn't there a movie called "2012" about this kind of stuff?

Here's hoping Irene takes a big right-hand turn and leaves the city high and dry.

Pandabonium said...

Funny, we didn't feel a thing while vacationing in Miyagi Prefecture...

Reacting to such events is a good idea. However, running out of a building which may have pieces of stone and glass falling into the street can be dangerous.


Glad you're OK.

bonnie said...

Actually the good thing about this is that we got a good reminder that we CAN have earthquakes here & it would be smart to learn (in my case, re-learn) what you do or don't do in earthquakes.