Sunday, April 4, 2010

7.2 Earthquake

First off, Happy Easter!!!

Yes, I felt the quake.

I guess I'm about 150 miles north of where the quake was centered- based on estimates from what I've guessed after reading online. I've yet to watch the news reports, but read it was 50 miles southeast of Tijuana.

So here's my account of the quake at 3:40 today.

It was the trippiest thing. Was at my aunt's extended family in San Bernardino county, and their house is right on the San Andreas fault.

I was outside sitting at the table with my cousins, leaning forward to pet the dog. All of a sudden the ground has a swaying up and down motion like we are on a ship. I honestly felt kind of high, like I was hallucinating, and there felt like a pressure above me drawing me to the ground. I sit back in the chair and the ground is still swaying and I just felt it vibrate below my feet. It lasted probably a good 40-50 seconds. I am serious. I had time to sit back in the chair, my cousin said "good it isn't me. I thought maybe I was going into shock because I haven't eaten anything in 8 days" (she is on some 10 day body cleanse where you drink some concoction made of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.) My aunt comes running outside, "did anyone feel the earthquake? This is an earthquake!" My dad is standing, leaning on my chair, and says it is pretty strong to still be going on. We guessed it was about a magnitude 4 or 5, but didn't know exactly since it went on for so long. My aunt who was freaking out checked online, and I looked on my phone and saw it was a 6.9 (later 7.2), and we were amazed, yet scared that we felt it. That was pretty much the talk for the next 15 minutes about how crazy it was.

I have yet to feel any of those magnitude 5 or so aftershocks.

6 comments:

Bruce said...

Happy Easter Mikey!! The EQ WAS freaky. It was the worst I've felt in my 5 1/2 yrs in Socal. I was in Palm Springs and it even sloshed water out of the pool!! It seemed to last a very long time and the intensity increased after a lull after the initial shock which was unusual in my experience. I was on the 25th floor of a downtown LA highrise during the one a couple of summers ago and it wasn't nearly as bad or as long. Very freaky!!

Phunk Factor said...

Wow!! Good to know your safe!!

jnhgjghnghnh said...

Happy Easter, glad to hear you are safe

Mike said...

Bruce- WOW! That must have been quite a site to see the water sloshing out of the pool!

Mike said...

Bruce- WOW! That must have been quite a site to see the water sloshing out of the pool!

Aek said...

Woah! I heard about that on the radio this morning. Crazy stuff.