Yesterday, as many of you heard, California had an earthquake. It tipped the scale at 5.4 with a couple of aftershocks weighing in at 3.8. It made for a very eventful morning!
At close to noon, Lex and I were sitting in the middle of the living room floor, playing our own little version of chess; wherein, we attempt to anticipate the others' moves and thwart their plan (most of the time as you can probably guess, I am on the losing end of this game). I noticed that the building was shaking a bit - nothing really new, considering that we live next to a busy freeway with lots of big trucks. When I noticed that the pictures were bouncing on the walls, and candles on the counters were not so subtly getting closer and closer to the edge, I knew that no truck was causing this.
Having only been in one other earthquake, I am not an expert on protocol; so, I scooped Lex up and stood in the middle of the kitchen area - close to the doorway. Why not in the doorway, you may be asking. Well, as silly as it sounds the only thought I was having at the time was, "Crap! I forgot to put my bra on this morning!" (pardon the candor). Talk about being caught off guard! There was no way I was opening my door, all I could do was pray it didn't get worse and force us to evacuate! Truth be told, the rescue teams would have to come to me, because I was going down with the ship.
As I was facing this dilemma, I learned later from David that the quake caught him studying in the library. He put all those years of elementary school drills (do they have quake drill in WA? hmm) to go use and dove for cover under his desk. Take a moment if you will to ponder on this picture with me... the middle of a library, all 6'5 David under his desk, and everyone else acting like nothing happened (inwardly snickering at the goofy guy hiding under the desk). I'll admit it, the picture made me laugh... just a little though... okay, so it still is a little funny.
Thankfully, I did not have to leave my apartment, Lex didn't have a clue what was going on, and David's desk protected him sufficiently. After taking a little time to make sure David was safe, Lex and I once again sat in the middle of the floor to evaluate ourselves on our response time. We were pretty proud of ourselves for realizing that something 'not normal' was happening, and were happy with the timely manner in which we reacted.
We did put together an action and evacuation plan for the next quake, there are only 2 things we felt needed improvement.
For next natural disaster:
1 - be fully clothed, where as not to hamper evacuation.
2 - somehow get video footage of library where David is studying
2 comments:
ha ha! i wondered how you guys faired through it all. there was a 5.0 quake near vandenburg when we lived there--middle of the day, i was on the couch nursing and just sat there as i watch the lamp fall over. probably should have stood under a doorway, i know.
We totally have quake drills in school growing up in WA! That is so awesome David rememberd - did he really get under the desk? That is awesome and hilarious! Good call Crockett! So glad you all are okay. I told David last night I tried calling but couldn't get through. Have fun with the next one. :)
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