Earthquake!

[Lizard Racing]

Well, something finally knocked Corona Virus off the headlines, at least locally.

Utah was hit with a 5.7 earthquake at 0710 this morning. We've been having aftershocks of 4.5 or so all day.  Experts say that they may go on for up to two weeks.

I was awakened by the blinds and the china cabinet rattling.  At first I thought a truck hit our building, then it didn't diminish.  Then I remembered my bed is next to two tall bookcases with 75 models on them, not secured to the wall (we are apartment dwellers).  That woke me up fast!

There doesn't seem to be much damage and no reports of serious injury.

Secure your cases to the wall if possible!!!

[Snake45]

27 minutes ago, Lizard Racing said:

I was awakened by the blinds and the china cabinet rattling.  At first I thought a truck hit our building, then it didn't diminish. 

That was my reaction to the east coast earthquake of a few years ago. I was also doing laundry at the time and I thought maybe the washing machine had become TERRIBLY unbalanced! 

[slusher]

2 hours ago, Lizard Racing said:

Well, something finally knocked Corona Virus off the headlines, at least locally.

Utah was hit with a 5.7 earthquake at 0710 this morning. We've been having aftershocks of 4.5 or so all day.  Experts say that they may go on for up to two weeks.

I was awakened by the blinds and the china cabinet rattling.  At first I thought a truck hit our building, then it didn't diminish.  Then I remembered my bed is next to two tall bookcases with 75 models on them, not secured to the wall (we are apartment dwellers).  That woke me up fast!

There doesn't seem to be much damage and no reports of serious injury.

Secure your cases to the wall if possible!!!

Mine are secure. Did it damage any of your models and personal house hold belongings?

[Joe Handley]

We’ve had a couple hit near Chicago, last one woke me up at 1am and felt like somebody hit the house so hard I almost went down to see if Mom and Dad were ok......but I had been afraid to move in case the house was damaged enough from the hit that I might end up down there anyway, with my bed and half of my room. A couple days later I was talking with a Korean War Vet I knew and he told me he made his wife get up and they spent the night in their car in case of aftershocks. He also said that after Korea, he lived in California for a while and knew what could happen! 
The shaker before that was also in the middle of the night and woke me up, nut I though that might have been some jerk with more stereo than brain cells that had it cranked to 22 as he rolled by. Discovered it was a quake the next day when when a then local DJ that had lived in California at one time with her husband and both were woken up and much like my above friend, knew exactly what happened but weren’t sure if they had to respond in the same way they did in Cali.

[SfanGoch]

2 hours ago, Snake45 said:

That was my reaction to the east coast earthquake of a few years ago. I was also doing laundry at the time and I thought maybe the washing machine had become TERRIBLY unbalanced! 

Are you talking about the one in August 2011? The apartment complex where we lived in Downtown Brooklyn is built right over the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station on vibration pads to mitigate shaking from the train traffic below street level. My son was on his computer in his bedroom, I was in the living room and Fmeep the Cat was snoozing on top of the a/c wall sleeve when I felt the apartment rocking. My son and I looked out the living room window and saw that the friggin' view was moving from side to side. I thought it was because of the subway trains running through the station until we saw the sign on the deli across the street fall off the wall and people started flooding out into the street. Junior and I thought it was pretty cool. Fmeep continued snoozing.

[Snake45]

7 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

Are you talking about the one in August 2011? The apartment complex where we lived in Downtown Brooklyn is built right over the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station on vibration pads to mitigate shaking from the train traffic below street level. My son was on his computer in his bedroom, I was in the living room and Fmeep the Cat was snoozing on top of the a/c wall sleeve when I felt the apartment rocking. My son and I looked out the living room window and saw that the friggin' view was moving from side to side. I thought it was because of the subway trains running through the station until we saw the sign on the deli across the street fall off the wall and people started flooding out into the street. Junior and I thought it was pretty cool. Fmeep continued snoozing.

First clue I had it was an earthquake was when Rush Limbaugh said on the radio, about 30 seconds later, "What was THAT???"  I think he was still broadcasting from New York at the time. 

[Pete J.]

Here in California, earthquakes are like thunderstorms elsewhere.  They happen all the time and we pretty much ignore them.  However like thunderstorms that may have a tornado in them, once in a while one comes through that tears things up.  That then requires more attention.  What happened in Utah was one of those.  When they happen in a place that you don't expect them like Utah or Missouri or the east coast, then they get a lot more attention.  I felt my first quake in 1967 in Laramie, Wyoming.  It wasn't very big but boy did it get my attention.  I was a 18 year old away from home for the first time at college.   Stressed the heck out of me for a while. 

[espo]

16 hours ago, Lizard Racing said:

Well, something finally knocked Corona Virus off the headlines, at least locally.

Utah was hit with a 5.7 earthquake at 0710 this morning. We've been having aftershocks of 4.5 or so all day.  Experts say that they may go on for up to two weeks.

I was awakened by the blinds and the china cabinet rattling.  At first I thought a truck hit our building, then it didn't diminish.  Then I remembered my bed is next to two tall bookcases with 75 models on them, not secured to the wall (we are apartment dwellers).  That woke me up fast!

There doesn't seem to be much damage and no reports of serious injury.

Secure your cases to the wall if possible!!!

The main thing is you're ok. I spent most of my life in various parts of California and like PeteJ said they are somewhat common, but not something to become complacent about. The unfortunate part is that there is little you can due about the earthquake it's self, but your life and belongings you can take measures to protect. As you mentioned kicking the whole Corona Virus thing off the TV. The local TV here is so busy yammering on and on that they don't talk about anything else. I check the USGS Earthquake site on my phone ones in a while and was surprised  to see how much activity there has been in your area. The number of after shocks especially got my attention. Do you have any known faults in your area, is there any fracking going on ? Not much you can do about either one, but you can start planning to be prepared for any future shacking.   

[ChrisBcritter]

I was in SoCal when the Northridge quake hit; our house got shaken pretty hard but a long shelf of models stayed put. Turned out it was because the vinyl tires had softened the latex paint on the shelf a bit and stuck themselves to it. First and only time I was thankful for tire melt.

[Lizard Racing]

Thank you all for your kind concern.  Our quake wasn't such a big deal, compared with others to the west.  Yes, there is the Wasatch fault that runs north-south through the state.  It's so popular they built the I-15 freeway on top of it!  We get warnings about quakes, since this is a geologically active area. When I took CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training, a bit of time was spent responding to quake damage.

On a more important note, my collection was not damaged.  Most of the cars do not roll, so that probably helped.

[stavanzer]

Joe. Fmeep the Cat?? Cool Name.

George, another vote for wheels that don't roll. I live in Cali, so now I have the best reason to clue mu wheels. Thanks!

[SfanGoch]

58 minutes ago, alexis said:

Joe. Fmeep the Cat?? Cool Name.

Fmeep

His favorite gag is to spray whipped cream in his mouth and scare the hell out of the neighborhood kids by pretending he's rabid.

[Snake45]

1 minute ago, SfanGoch said:

Fmeep

His favorite gag is to spray whipped cream in his mouth and scare the hell out of the neighborhood kids by pretending he's rabid.

I bet he's a big fan of the Get Fuzzy comic strip. If he's not the star of it. 

[SfanGoch]

Darby Conley's drawing style looks suspiciously similar to Berkley Breathed's (Bloom County).

[stavanzer]

Thanks, Joe. Nice to put a face to a name.

Get Fuzzy. I have not read that in years. I need to go and find some.

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, SfanGoch said:

Darby Conley's drawing style looks suspiciously similar to Berkley Breathed's (Bloom County).

Never thought about it, but you're kinda right. 

[Mike999]

3 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

I was in SoCal when the Northridge quake hit; our house got shaken pretty hard but a long shelf of models stayed put. Turned out it was because the vinyl tires had softened the latex paint on the shelf a bit and stuck themselves to it. First and only time I was thankful for tire melt.

I was living then at Sherman Way & Corbin Ave. in the Valley, about 2 miles from the epicenter in Northridge.  Since both the gas and water mains broke, one of the weirdest things I remember seeing was burning natural gas floating on top of water in the street.

Everybody mostly pulled together in the aftermath of that quake.  There were many little Mom-and-Pop delis and cafes in my neighborhood.  All of them were giving away food, since it would just spoil anyway. 

[SfanGoch]

On Sunday, October 20,1985, an earthquake centered in Ardsley, N.Y. hit at a little past 6 A.M. It was felt in NYC, including Brooklyn. How did I find out? The hung wall case directly over the head of my bed fell and smacked me dead in the kisser. I wasn't really a big deal. I had to get up and get ready for work anyway.

[slusher]

10 hours ago, Pete J. said:

Here in California, earthquakes are like thunderstorms elsewhere.  They happen all the time and we pretty much ignore them.  However like thunderstorms that may have a tornado in them, once in a while one comes through that tears things up.  That then requires more attention.  What happened in Utah was one of those.  When they happen in a place that you don't expect them like Utah or Missouri or the east coast, then they get a lot more attention.  I felt my first quake in 1967 in Laramie, Wyoming.  It wasn't very big but boy did it get my attention.  I was a 18 year old away from home for the first time at college.   Stressed the heck out of me for a while. 

I don’t think I could handle earthquakes on a regular basis. Plus in California you never know when the big one is going to happen. I would have to change states...

[Bills72sj]

There was an earthquake in the Seattle area around 20 years ago. I was in a Verizon cell site radio shack installing equipment when I heard banging of some of cable supports outside. I saw the motion of the equipment around me so I ran outside. At that point I got to see two very strange phenomenon. The first was the land, on the horizon, wave like an ocean swell from right to left for quite some distance. The other was watching the top of a 150ft cell site monopole tower whip back and forth 10ft for about 20 seconds. I knew the tower wasn't going over because I know how massive the concrete base in the ground. But it was an experience I'll never forget. Later on I talked to some coworkers who were actually driving across the Tacoma Narrows bridge when it happened. They said many people started pulling over to see if they had a flat tire. (This was the bridge that was built AFTER the other one fell down due to an engineering flaw)

[Pete J.]

2 hours ago, slusher said:

I don’t think I could handle earthquakes on a regular basis. Plus in California you never know when the big one is going to happen. I would have to change states...

The concept of "The Big One" is overblown by movies and TV.  Earthquakes generally are rather localized in that they may be felt many miles away, damage or hazard is relatively concentrated.  The damage of the big one does not mean the whole state will be destroyed.  Where I live, the nearest fault is over 30 miles away and it is unlikely that any activity on that fault will make any buildings hazardous or uninhabitable.  There are many other disasters that happen throughout the US, far more frequently than earthquakes.    Frankly, I would rather live here with the EQ hazard than on the east coast where it is subject to a much larger and wider hazard.  The Hurricanes that are guaranteed to hit several times every year.   In an earthquake, if I step outside away from building, no matter how bad the quake, I am probably safe.  You have to run hundreds of miles to get out of the path of a hurricane.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Pete J.

[slusher]

24 minutes ago, Pete J. said:

The concept of "The Big One" is overblown by movies and TV.  Earthquakes generally are rather localized in that they may be felt many miles away, damage or hazard is relatively concentrated.  The damage of the big one does not mean the whole state will be destroyed.  Where I live, the nearest fault is over 30 miles away and it is unlikely that any activity on that fault will make any buildings hazardous or uninhabitable.  There are many other disasters that happen throughout the US, far more frequently than earthquakes.    Frankly, I would rather live here with the EQ hazard than on the east coast where it is subject to a much larger and wider hazard.  The Hurricanes that are guaranteed to hit several times every year.   In an earthquake, if I step outside away from building, no matter how bad the quake, I am probably safe.  You have to run hundreds of miles to get out of the path of a hurricane.

I never really thought about it from your point of view. Thank you for your knowledge on the subject. I have herd on the news and  seen movies about Los Angeles and San Francisco. I do remember one in 94 and remember the damage. I agree about  living in a hurricane zone my aunt lived in Fort Walton Beach, Fl I have seen the damage. No place is perfect. I live here because I am tired of snow but the summers are brutal with heat and humidity.  Has your home ever been damaged? I am sure you have insurance for that. 

[Pete J.]

9 hours ago, slusher said:

I never really thought about it from your point of view. Thank you for your knowledge on the subject. I have herd on the news and  seen movies about Los Angeles and San Francisco. I do remember one in 94 and remember the damage. I agree about  living in a hurricane zone my aunt lived in Fort Walton Beach, Fl I have seen the damage. No place is perfect. I live here because I am tired of snow but the summers are brutal with heat and humidity.  Has your home ever been damaged? I am sure you have insurance for that. 

Never had any damage from and earthquake in the thirty years I have lived here.  The first earthquake that I remember here was Northridge.  It woke me up because the closet doors were rattling. That was over a hundred miles away, but the damage was limited to the immediate area of Northridge.  That damage was significant.  An interstate overpass collapse and that and the collapse of the Nimitz freeway in San Francisco in 1989 lead the the reinforcing of all overpasses with carbon fiber wraps.  Since then there have been a few that rattled the windows but it takes a lot more that a little rattling to actually do damage except some rattled nerves.  The damage in San Francisco was unique because of the geological underpinings for the city.  A large portion, especially around the bay is built on fill that has accumulated over the last several hundred years.  It is essentially water soaked debris that turns into jello when an earthquake happens.  It is amazing to me that the city planners are very well aware of the instability of that kind of ground and yet they still build on it.  You can fix buildings but you can't fix stupid.   

[Mike999]

5 minutes ago, Pete J. said:

...the damage was limited to the immediate area of Northridge.  That damage was significant.  An interstate overpass collapse...  

It sure was significant.  And bizarre. I walked around the neighborhood afterwards.  At Northridge Mall, the parking structure collapsed.  One very lucky guy was trapped in the debris and they dug him out about 3 days later.  An apartment building with underground parking pancaked, with the 3 floors falling right onto the tops of the cars underneath.  Across the street from Northridge Mall, a Tower Records building split right down the middle and the 2 halves fell in on each other. 

L.A. lost  2 major freeways in that quake.  The 118 collapsed and killed a Highway Patrol motorcycle officer who rode off the edge, right into the abyss.  That freeway was the main commute for people who lived in Palmdale/Lancaster.  And the Santa Monica Fwy/I-10 fell, another major commuting route for people going and coming to  West L.A. 

[ChrisBcritter]

On 3/20/2020 at 10:32 AM, Mike999 said:

And the Santa Monica Fwy/I-10 fell, another major commuting route for people going and coming to West L.A. 

I remember that from the news helicopter shot of the LAPD cruiser blithely driving off the broken end in broad daylight, with the officer getting out and looking like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Whittier was scarier for me - that hit like a jackhammer in Pasadena; bailed out of bed and ran from the apartment with the stairwell ceiling plaster falling on me, and managed to cut my foot on a bit of glass once I got out.

Edited March 22, 2020 by ChrisBcritter