Death Loomed just 3 Miles Away
Thank God it didn’t come to thatl No deaths that we know of thus far and I’m praying there will NOT be another quake that leaves me feeling this unsettled. For a long, long time to come.
Okay, I was more than unsettled. I was scared. Even after it stopped my heart continued to race and it’s been over for several hours now. The aftershocks don’t seem to bother me all that much. I just don’t like earthquakes.
This one was scary because you could tell it was close. Those are the worst. And any that shake and roll at the same time make it seem longer and you’re much less steady. This is the kind we had.
We’ve had endless sirens all night. Helicopters flying about, circling the big water main break.
All manner of odd noises are going on late into the night, which, of course, up the ante on the tension. Continuing aftershocks don’t help either.
Oh, and during the big 5.1 (or 5.3, depending on your source) magnitude, our front door flew open and wouldn’t stay closed. The cats freaked out, which meant I panicked and believed that Celia exited through the front door when I spotted it open 5 minutes later. Nope, she hid behind some artwork stacked in front of the bookcase. It took us an hour to find her. WHEW! I can handle the stuff that fell and broke, I can handle all sorts of things. But not a lost and frightened cat. I was near tears the whole time.
We were lucky in that our damage was cheap stuff that I’m comfortable with never replacing.
Mark my words though: if Celia had escaped, she’d be hard to find and unlikely to ever be turned in if someone caught her. And I would never be able to stop crying. But she was found and now all is right with the world and I am still too shook up to try sleepingl
And for those of you of the Visuals Appreciation Society, here’s a little visual aid.
You can see where that orange arrow indicates the epicenter (La Habra) and the varying shades of pink indicating Fullerton, which is where I reside. The blue arrows indicate major freeways or areas of importance (like Disneyland or Knotts Berry Farm or other freeways). To say this quake hit a little too close to home for my liking would bearly scratch the surface of how I feel. Still, as scary as earthquakes are, I prefer them to tornadoes, from which no one is truly safe. Experienced enough of those in my lifetime to know they’re near the tippy top of my Scaredy Cat list.
Anyhow, to make a long story just a wee bit longer, as the quake hit, Music Choice was playing “Shake Rattle & Roll”. God has a wicked sense of humor sometimes.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Thank God you are all okay. That’s all I can think. Thank God!
Small tremors can be uncomfortable… but a 5.1 only four miles from the epicenter… I would have freaked!!
HUGS from 3,000 miles away! And please give the kitties extra loves from me.
Comment by pam — 2014/03/29 @ 04:04
Thank you for the hugs. They were definitely needed.
We’re still experiencing aftershocks this morning. I’ve not slept at all. I keep thinking a bigger one will hit.
I don’t spook easily with earthquakes. I really don’t. In fact, after the first 3.something quake around 20:00, I tweeted “this is my Friday night excitement” and we went back to playing our game. An hour later: BAM! We got hit hard. It was just too much. It was bad. Everything we’ve had since then has been small, but I still am a bit uncomfortable with how I feel and what else might happen.
Obviously, it’s been an eventful start to our weekend.
Comment by Da Goddess — 2014/03/29 @ 08:11
I totally understand! Hurricanes are the same way for me; I’ve been through some Cat 5 storms that blew my roof off… but I still get freaked when one is coming… you just don’t know what will happen. :(
Hope you’re able to get some rest!!
Comment by pam — 2014/03/29 @ 17:11
I slept a bit. I’d fallen asleep for about an hour and woke up to another small quake. Stayed up for a bit and finally went back to sleep for a couple more hours.
I’d much rather have earthquakes than tornadoes or hurricanes, thankyouverymuch. Though ideally, I’d rather just have to deal with airplane turbulence. That would be much more comforting than any of this crap
Comment by Da Goddess — 2014/03/29 @ 21:46
I still remember being woken up from a sound sleep by the Northridge earthquake in 94 (we lived in Torrance at the time). My parents were in WVa at the time during a blizzard, and turned on the TV in their motel room that morning to news of the quake. Their first words were, “are the dogs okay?” Everything was fine except something leaked in their master bathroom because they came home three days later to a soaked bathroom floor (the one room I never went into and checked).
Comment by diamond dave — 2014/03/31 @ 08:34
In 94, I was in Colorado and was bombarded with coverage of the earthquake and pissed as hell that there was no new information coming from any of the networks. I was so worried about my family! From the news, you’d have thought all of SoCal was destroyed. At least this time they focused on facts and regular updates that were more than a simple rehash of previous reports.
Comment by Da Goddess — 2014/03/31 @ 11:55