Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Earthquake!

There was just a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered in Chino Hills, CA - about 30 miles from my office. I'm on the second floor, so things up here were rattling a lot - probably more than on the ground floor. I thought briefly about "ducking and covering" but decided to wait it out when it seemed like it wouldn't get too crazy. Once the shaking stopped (probably quaked for about 5-10 seconds total), we all grabbed our little emergency kits and evacuated the building. Notably, I remained calm throughout, though once it was over, my legs did feel a bit like jelly, and I had an increased heart rate. Also notably, one of my coworkers was so intent on calling his family that he disregarded any and all safety precautions and darted in and out of the building trying to locate a working phone. Of course no quaking was happening at this point, but the man seemed a little crazed. Note to self - don't get stranded with this dude in a true emergency.

2 comments:

Karl Hite said...

dude, intense!

I saw some pictures of some chinese dude's convenience store in flames with looters and stuff!

Actually, some of his wares had simply fallen off of their racks.

Nevertheless... INTENSE!

Shirlene said...

It is apparent that during a crisis, Betsy is the calm voice of reason and action. I bow to your ability to remain lucid during such an event.