Reply #74: Earthquakes, by Julie

[Missy Vixen]

Hi Bob,

One of my first memories is of an earthquake. I was five. We had one hell of a quake in Western Washington in 1965; I still remember looking out of the picture window in my parents' living room and watching the road rippling (!) up and down. My mother picked me up and threw me under the dining room table; I think she thought the house would collapse.

There were several other minor quakes in my childhood and young adulthood. One of the weirder ones was about nine years ago; we'd just moved into our townhouse. Our tuxedo girl cat, Holly, suddenly stood up on her hind legs with both paws extended as I heard a roaring I'll never forget. It was a minor earthquake, but featured many aftershocks. Poor Holly the cat (and her brother Merlin,) spent about three days hiding underneath our bed.

The worst quake I can remember was a couple of years ago, and the anniversary's coming up on the 28th. It was a 6.8, if I recall correctly. I was at the eye doctor's. The building was violently shaking (and rolling; most office buildings here are required to be built on rollers.) Interestingly enough, the patients stayed inside the building as everyone who lives in an earthquake zone is instructed to do; the doctors ran outside! One of the weirder elements was looking down the hallway at white-faced and obviously frightened doctors, patients and nurses. I walked into the hallway when the shaking stopped and said, "Group hug!" Everyone joined in.

There were several visiting salespeople in my husband's office who had never been in an earthquake before. One of my husband's co-workers was slightly injured when he dived under someone's desk to escape injury. Another co-worker got in her car, checked out of the hotel she was staying in, and drove to the airport -- she told us later that she would get on any plane, going anywhere, to get out of the area. Unfortunately, Sea-Tac was heavily damaged and she wasn't able to fly out for several more days.

Driving home that day was something else. Power was out all over the place. Offices emptied out all over the area; this created hellish traffic. My husband finally managed to get through the "circuits are busy" signal to tell me not to go inside till he got home (we've got natural gas, he was worried I wouldn't be able to crank the wrench hard enough to shut off the gas if we had to do so.) The cats took up residence under our bed (again,) for several days. Luckily, nothing was broken at our house, but there was a LOT of damage around the area. One person died of a heart attack.

The worst part of the earthquake, though, was afterwards. I couldn't sleep. Everytime poor DH would roll over in bed, I'd get completely panicky -- was it happening again? A local psychologist put some coping ideas on her website for people like me who were having a tough time. I'm sure that the Californians probably roll with laughter at that, but it's true.

In the meantime, the only thing that worries me these days is when we drive through the valley we live above and see cows and horses lying down. They were lying down the day of the earthquake, too.

Julie