Earthquake!

[PhilinYuma]

40 minutes ago, Yuma was struck by a 6.9 RS earthquake. We were within the 50 mile radius of the epicenter. It was really great fun! There is absolutely nothing that you can do when an earthquake is quaking except enjoy it. Things fell off bookcases and narrow shelves, but nothing serious, and although the shock was felt as far north as LA, it did not travel as far west as Florence, so I guess that Phoenix didn't feel it either.

"But how about the mantids?" you ask. They were saved by the Great Mantis Goddess, (Blessed be Her Name). Some empty pots fell off the narrow shelves (we just got another aftershock!) on which they are placed, but under the guidance of the Goddess, I transferred all of my occupied containers to the new shelving two days ago, and they were all safe!

 

[revmdn]

Hang on Phil! I just read about this on CNN.

 

[kitkat39]

We felt it over here in Orange County, California.. it was just really long and kind of smooth actually.. nothing really fell at all. At first I just thought it was me being light headed from a long day. =P

 

[PhilinYuma]

Oh, I am so proud! A reassessment of the earthquake puts it at 7.2, up from "severe" to "major" and lessening the frequency from 120/year (worldwide) to 18/yr. Also, I checked, and we are about 49 miles from the epicenter. Although I have visited places on the earthquake-popular Pacific Rim, I have never enjoyed a major earthquake before. This will most probably be the largest one that I ever experience, and I am sure that as time goes by, it will grow in magnitude when I recount it.

 

[idolomantis]

Glad you liked it :/

I wonder if people in a certain island in the Caribbean and and a certain country in south america also enjoyed large earthquakes.

 

[MantidLord]

We felt it down here in Southern Nevada too. At least the tremors.

 

[kamakiri]

Glad you're okay Phil!

My wife felt it...I didn't because I was in my car just outside.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Glad you liked it :/

I wonder if people in a certain island in the Caribbean and and a certain country in south america also enjoyed large earthquakes.

Well, Idolo, I can only tell you that today's Mexicali earthquake was 1/5th stronger than the major one that hit Haiti. I guess that some areas have stronger bookcases than others. I have been in Haiti, very briefly, thank God. Their bookcases appeared very flimsy.

On a more serious note. The abysmally ineffective Haitian government allowed the construction of shacks in the huge slums surrounding the capital, knowing that they would not survive even a severe earthquake in an area in which earthquakes are prevalent. The country is essentially run by the U.S. through the CIA which is better at spying and assassination than empire building (cf the ouster of the Haitian president during the last American incumbency and Bill Clinton's recent "apology"). However, until a 8+ (and I am speaking of the outdated Richter scale that is still usually quoted by the press) earthquake hits the west coast of California or Tokyo, we will not know how their "first world" infrastructure holds up. Poorly, I suspect from past experience. The Dutch have done a brilliant job of reclaiming their land from the North Sea and keeping it through determination and engineering skill. Apparently, humans respond better to a constant threat than to an occasional one.

 

[yeatzee]

I was going to post something but decided I'd let someone else do it for me.... thanks Phil!

I was watching slumdog millionaire when it happened.... pretty intese where I was. It was actually kind of fun... not the usual hard jerking type, but rather it felt like the house was "rolling." Best way I could describe it :mellow:

Kind of like a roller coaster actually....

Nothing broken or damaged on my end

 

[Rick]

Stay safe.

 

[idolomantis]

Well, Idolo, I can only t ...snip... an occasional one.

True enough. Altough I think a lot of people on haiti could also been safed if they had the proper knowledge of what to do when an earthquake hits. If they would only teach that at school instead of the usual ever boring math formulas.

If you've got a good strong table you can always try to dive underneath it.