Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My Retirement - Shake, Rattle and Roll

The earth is shaking but I am doing OK.

It would never happen here!

A picture of damage in a road, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.I live on the east coast where we sometimes get the remnants of hurricanes, an occasional tornado, but nothing earthshaking.  I was cleaning my cupboards and had my dishes on my kitchen island.  All of a sudden, the dishes started to rattle.  I thought I had not stacked them correctly and rearranged them.  A few minutes later my son Andy called me to tell me that we just had a 5.9 earthquake.  Wow!  We don't have earthquakes, the west coast gets them.  The news stations are saying it started in Virginia and was felt as far as New York.  That is quite a large area to be affected.  Buildings are being evacuated in some areas, but have not gotten any news of places around here. 

This has been quite a year for the earth. 

15 comments:

  1. The first earthquake I was in was in NYC when I was a kid. The last- a couple years ago here in VT. 5.9 is a china rattler, but the first ones are scary.
    We've made tremendous holes, emptying out all that oil from underground and undersea for the last century+, something's gonna move!

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  2. Glad it was just a mild one...we don't have them often here either but just last summer we had a 5.0 rattler. Take care.

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  3. I heard about the quake on NPR as I was driving home from school. I am so glad all is okay with you. This morning I heard the east coast is also on alert because of the hurricane brewing. Stay safe! Bonnie

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  4. Austen, Delores, Amy and Bonnie: It looks like the earthquake will be followed by the lovely Irene and her big winds. Quite a week!

    The quake was just a shake, nothing to worry about. It will be the topic of conversation for a few days, then forgotten. However, it was an unusual feeling.

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  5. That must have been so scary! Glad you're all safe and well!

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  6. Hi Molly, It wasn't scary, just very surprising. It is not something to expect on this side of the US. If it was larger, over 6.0 (this was 5.9), it could do some damage here as none of our buildings are retrofited to sustain something that large. I also live a few miles from a nuclear power plant and that does give you caution.

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  7. Please be careful in the hurricane season. Those are what worry me now.

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  8. Hi Austan, Here's to hoping that Irene will be blowing out to sea. I have plans to take my granddaughter, Ruby, to the Baltimore Aquarium on Saturday and that is the day they are predicting the storm will hit. She is so looking forward to "Ruby Day" and I have already paid for the trip. Ah, the best-laid plans....

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  9. Hello Arleen:
    We are hearing about this from a number of other blogs. All very alarming and we do so hope that all is well with you. Take great care.

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  10. On TV, the brick buildings were crumbling. Out here in CA, there are very very few brick homes because earthquakes do such damage.
    Glad you are okay; now here comes Irene...

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  11. Glad you are o.k. It will be many years before things are back to "normal" down in Christchurch after their earthquakes.

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  12. Glad to know that you only had to contend with rattling crockery. I hope that 'Ruby Day' doesn't get blown away!

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  13. I'm a wee bit of an 'earthquake watcher' - these quakes on the East Coast are highly unusual (Incidentally we had 8 quakes hit Scotland in the one day last week which is also very odd) and I've just seen a USGS report of another 3+ hitting New York less than an hour ago...strange times indeed.

    I'm glad all's well for you!

    Rory

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