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Has anyone experienced an earthquake?

Just curious how does it feel and how does one know that earthquake is here and we need to vacate the house/office etc?
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
Three that scared me here in central Oklahoma. Each one was different. The first one I heard a boom and then a few seconds later the house shook like a giant had grabbed it shook it. I thought that a military plane had gone down or that there was terrorism explosion somewhere. The epicenter was about 6 miles away. The second one was a long lasting rolling earthquake. And the third one was a single shake and I was sleeping and nearly fell off the bed. We had a lot more smaller ones that sounded like a “whoosh” up against the sunroom. I’d check online in about 20 minutes and sure enough it was a smaller quake.
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@cherokeepatti Thank you for writing experience. I bet i was terrifying... did it have damage to your home by chance?
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@DCGuy77 not that we could tell.
Grew up near SF, and experienced many quakes. Little ones feel like your laying on a raft in a pool with waves underneath you. Medium sized quakes feel like someone is shaking your bed. Big ones are just plain scary...especially when shit starts falling down.
CrazyMusicLover · 31-35
@BizSuitStacy Does the power go out with the big ones?
@CrazyMusicLover It can, though building codes in the US are such that the electric grid is unaffected. But broken gas lines and water pipes are a problem.
CrazyMusicLover · 31-35
A very weak one recently for the first time. It felt as if I was sitting on a vibrating pad. I almost didn't notice because I often balance on the edge of my chair with wheels and I was basically doing that at the moment so at first I just thought I found the spot where the balancing felt more distinct but then I realized something was off.

I guess I wouldn't be able to recognize if it was serious.
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@CrazyMusicLover Ok thanks for sharing experience.. was earthquake severe in other parts of the city?
CrazyMusicLover · 31-35
@DCGuy77 My city wasn't affected, it only scared people who live on upper floors (7-12) but the village near the epicenter had it bad enough that some people couldn't return home. The walls on their houses cracked. Some chimneys fell down, some had smashed cabinets etc. Then there was some problem with water in wells later, it turned bitter and polluted. Around 16 houses were uninhabitable and recommended to be torn down.
KiwiBird · 36-40, F
Well coming from New Zealand also known as the 'shaky isles' was brought up with them. Aotearoa lies directly on a major fault line being part of the Pacific rim of fire. We had earthquake drills at school. Just prior to any earthquake the animals in the zoo all sounded off.....they sensed it before they hit.
Kstrong · 56-60, F
@KiwiBird animals know, innate ability
Ynotisay · M
I'm in California so many. Including the two 'big ones' in San Francisco and L.A. You know the earthquake is here when things start moving. There are alert systems but it's typically seconds before it hits. So there's really no warning which is a trippy thing to feel. The power is crazy.

When they first start, and if they have some size, then it becomes a matter of how long it lasts. And what kind of shaking. Some roll and some are back and forth. Typically they don't last long but it's when the cross the line in terms of power and length is when it gets a little wild.

And as far as vacating, that's the wrong thing to. If you're inside you stay inside. Outside you want to stay away from buildings and power lines. You might want to run a search on how to stay safe. What you don't want to do is flip out and start running around. So the more you know the less likely that will happen.
Feels like a funhouse
CBarson · 51-55
As a teenager in the 1980’s. It felt like somebody kicking my chair, but when I turned to confront them, there wasn’t anyone. I was later told we had experienced a low magnitude earthquake
CBarson · 51-55
@DCGuy77 no damage that I'm aware of occurred, I understand it was a very low magnitude quake and only lasted a matter of seconds. It was momentarily confusing, not really scary
Raaii · 22-25, F
[c=BF0000][i][u]yes I've
My ma was cooking and we were so clueless
When it was the first time I was very small
I thought a snake is shaking under us[/u][/i][/c]
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@Raaii Oh okay.. i bet it was scary feeling... any damage to your house or any equipment?
Raaii · 22-25, F
@DCGuy77 [c=BF0000]no much damage [/c]
Yeah 40 years ago
i was lay in the couch and is shook the house
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@jackjones68 Oh okay.. did you run out of house?
@DCGuy77 No i didnt really know what was happening i was 10. And never experienced it before
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@jackjones68 Oh okay sir
Scribbles · 36-40, F
Sure. Only very minor ones. If you've ever been in a shaky elevator-it's sort of like that,
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@Scribbles I bet it would be a little scary first time, right?
SW-User
Yes once when living in san diego in the late 80's. I happened to be in an auto parts store at the time, so for 20 seconds or however long I heard the sounds of hanging tools and parts and such swaying into each other
Neoerectus · M
In college in western MT, this long room had small successive waves. In another part of the state we got shaken. A third time it felt more abrupt like a small explosion took place.
WintaTheAngle · 41-45, M
Only once and very weak. It woke my family up one night. A very strange noise. Happened for less than 20 seconds but move some of the chairs around.
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@WintaTheAngle Oh ok, thanks for sharing.. I bet it was scary.. was the earthquake severe in other parts of the city?
don't get many here in the east but about 15 years ago a small one hit but shook the house pretty good
samueltyler2 · 80-89, M
Strange. I had no idea what happened until I read and heard about it in the news.
Northwest · M
A few. You need to seek shelter under office furniture, when things start shaking.
Kstrong · 56-60, F
Yes.... just a small tremor, 1994, 4.6, as i was on the eastcoast of th US
GlitterEater · 36-40, F
A very mild one. I just felt my bed wiggle
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@GlitterEater Ok... :) I bet it would be a little scary first time, right?
Khenpal1 · M
long time ago, the lamp went swinging.
We get light temblors fairly regularly. Usually, it’s like a jolt; the building shakes for a millisecond, and then that’s it. You always hope that it’s going to be only one, and it generally is. There are lighter ones that you don’t even feel. In 1989, there was the Loma Prieta earthquake that destroyed a few buildings, collapsed part of the Bay Bridge and trapped several commuters on the Cypress freeway.
But where I am (San Francisco Bay Area) that’s as bad as it’s gotten. There was the Northridge earthquake in Southern California (1994) that did a lot of damage as well.
JaggedLittlePill · 46-50, F
Yes a 5.2 back in 2008, April 18th. I woke up out of my sleep cause i heard something hitting the wall. I was half asleep..tried waking my husband about the noise but the the noise stopped. I didn't feel like the earth was moving but i also knew i heard something hitting the wall but i just stumbled around and then went back to sleep.

Woke the next morning and saw the news and then there were aftershocks all day.
Azlotto · M
Yes, two. They were very mild.
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@Azlotto Ok, that's good... but experience would have been scary for sure
Only one very minor one once while I was sitting in class during the day ... don't remember what it registered (if it's the one in an old news article I just pulled up, it was 3.7-3.9), but it was fairly minor shaking and lasted less than a minute I think ... elsewhere in the area it apparently cracked a load bearing wall at a different school and knocked down some power lines

It's been over a century since a biggish one (magnitude 6.9-7.3), so we are overdue ... I doubt most people even think of there being a fault here (or more than one fault ... apparently there was a 4.0 quake in 2002 tens of miles from the fault I generally think of)
Lilnonames · F
Te earth was quaking the bed was shaking😋
March 1993, 5:32am, a 5.4 near Salem, Oregon, that lasted 32 seconds, also known as the Spring Break Quake, the house shook and the floor shifted back and forth like how they do at carnival fun houses.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@NativePortlander1970 one here like that, it was a 5.7. It seemed like it was rolling and it lasted a long time.
@cherokeepatti The one I went through felt like it was shifting side to side and back and forth.
DCGuy77 · 22-25
@NativePortlander1970 Very interesting to listen to.

 
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