Guess I can sort of understand PTSD now. Neighbor started up his Harley and I almost jumped out a window.
No joke, we JUST had another one like 3 minutes ago. It was quick, but basically gave the whole house one good shake. Not enough to even make the bottles rattle, but you felt it and heard the whole house shimmer and settle.I was living in Huntington Beach during the '92 Big Bear earthquake. The most unsettling part was definitely the aftershocks, no matter how small they were. I had a really hard time sleeping for about a week after the quake.
I had a hanging light fixture in my bedroom at the time. I'd stare at that damn thing and wait for it to start swaying back and forth.No joke, we JUST had another one like 3 minutes ago. It was quick, but basically gave the whole house one good shake. Not enough to even make the bottles rattle, but you felt it and heard the whole house shimmer and settle.
But don't worry, I had a few bottles of wine and booze that escaped unharmed. Unfortunately to get under the wine and liquor cabinets, you have to empty them.
Better start drinking as long as they are out.No joke, we JUST had another one like 3 minutes ago. It was quick, but basically gave the whole house one good shake. Not enough to even make the bottles rattle, but you felt it and heard the whole house shimmer and settle.
I cannot imagine anything stronger than a 6.0I missed the 6.5 that rocked Paso about 10 years back and did some major damage to the city and caused the state to change regulations on mason building. But I was there for the aftershocks and they were crazy. You could hear them like a train before you can feel them. Always upsetting not knowing how long it will last.
I cannot imagine anything stronger than a 6.0
No, just been here 6.5 yearsWere you around for the 89 one?
No, just been here 6.5 years
Nope. Earthquakes are incredibly bizarre and our intuitive understanding of how they should work just does not apply. I read constantly that we're "due" for another 1906-size one, but earthquakes are (mostly) a Poisson process, which means the odds of one happening in any given unit of time are exactly the same. So the odds of a 1906-size one this year are the same as they were last year, and in 2012, and in 2011, and in 1907 for that matter. Elapsed duration just doesn't matter.I don't know much about quakes but assuming a series of small ones provides relief to avoid another big one.
Glad to hear everyone's okay.
This is precisely why no matter how sick I get of everything about the Northeast, I would never, ever be able to live in California. The missus has some family outside Santa Rosa, which was apparently far enough away that they didn't have any kind of damage.
So those small aftershocks could just be foreshocks for an even bigger one. It's unlikely (IIRC the USGS put the odds of the 6.0 being a foreshock at like 5%), but don't let your guard down.
With the regulations they place on building, damage to newer houses is rare. Yes you will lose shelves and what not, but the structure usually can withstand the tremor. Now with old brick buildings, and plaster walls, it is a little different as that is just not made to withstand the shaking and or rolling. Hence why roads buckle as do sidewalks. there is no give in that kind of material. I will take a quake over a tornado or hurricane any day. AS long as I am not in a 10 story building built in the early 1900's lol.
That's a he'll of a point.As much as I like old buildings, it's not even the architecture or the safety regulations or the physical possessions. It's psychological. The fact that "rock solid" as an absolute term means literally nothing would prevent me from ever being completely comfortable.
**** tornadoes, too.
Yeah, the risk in SF (other than the few buildings that still aren't up to code) is gas line breaks leading to fire, and then the fire fighters (who mostly live outside of SF) being unable to get into work because of buckled roads or collapses from shoddy overpasses...That's a he'll of a point.
Enter your email address to join: