Speaking of Earthquakes

a reply to: Raggedyman

I think I could get used to about anything... except the ground moving and melted rock coming out of it. Those two things... nah, redneck is good where he is.

Your point is sound, though... people get used to natural disasters. We have tornadoes here... nasty, evil swirling vortexes of death that we pretty much get out of the way of and go on with our lives. I call them "Mini Al Gore"s, because like him, they're full of hot air, spin around every which way the wind blows, and destroy everything they touch.

We've had one earthquake here several years ago, I think about a 3.something (might have been a 4.something?). No damage really, just a few homes with cracks in the brick and foundations. I actually never felt it; everyone around me said it woke them up. I'm thinking it was due to the fact my trailer sat inside the treeline of a mountain ridge. The bedrock is literally a couple feet below ground level.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Under the circumstances you describe, the only preparedness measures you can take is to keep a roll of toilet paper nearby.

I felt the one that happened in DC Maryland and Virginia ( the DMV we call it) a few years ago.
I was in a mall , there was a light vibration and the next thing was the whole building just started shaking, its wasn't really bad but I knew what was going on, the whole ceiling just dropped all the dust off at it kinda looked like someone flung a vacuum bag and covered everything. My only EQ, a little freaked out but thought it was kinda cool at the time, I know it wouldn't be cool if it were bigger.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

It wasn't what I expected at all.

I expected an earthquake to be like this up and down shaking, but that's not how it was. It was like this bizarre side to side motion. And I expected it to be a lot faster interval too, but it was kind of slow. It was like this rhythmic sine wave motion. There was some up and down motion to it, but the side to side motion was much more pronounced.

I did not like that one bit.

I'm always 'Mr. Prepared' for anything and everything (I hope), and it really bothered me that I didn't have a preparedness solution for that kind of an event, and still don't.

depends on what kind of fault it is...some wil cause the up and down....othere cause a back and forth movement I have been in both

I have always wanted to experience a minor earthquake. I missed the Landers quake by only a few hours. Kept hoping for an aftershock while I was there, and it waited until 13 hours after I left. Sooo frustrating! Also missed a minor one in Yuma by a few hours. I was once present for a very small quake that some people felt, but noone noticed/felt where I was. I've spent a good amount of time in California, so I figure I'm due on one of these trips.

Previous posters are all spot-on regarding surviving the quake itself.

Cover your head, with ANYTHING. being under a table or bed may keep a beam from breaking your back or shearing off a limb. Door jambs tend not to pancake along with the rest of the floor, so you could avoid the free-fall drop, and then climb down on the debris. Most of the survivable injuries are from falling flying small debris, not taking a girder up your nose or something.

The killer is the aftermath.

First comes fire.
Severed gas mains, downed electrical lines, food cooking that now spills all over a wall and floor and sets fire kitchens all across the city.

Next threat is dust.
Every particle of dust that has been settling in your building since it was erected is now airborne. The dust will get in your eyes, make you cough and gasp for air, inhaling the particles deep into your lungs. Everyone in refugee centers will have the same problem, making respiratory outbreaks inevitable as you all cough on each other.

Third is shifting debris fields.
Even without a single aftershock (almost impossible), the piles of ruble will be continuously settling over the next week or two. surfaces that you assume are solid, like a roadway or a stairwell, could actually be a teetering, temporary bridge that is ready to collapse like it was in a roadrunner-and-coyote cartoon. Most of the dead will actually have died of their injuries while trapped in debris, rather than from the blunt-force traumas administered by the quake itself.

How do you prepare?

You need the same equipment you'd need after a tornado that topples buildings, or a hurricane, or a bomb blast.

Nuisance Level dust mask / N95
goggles
flashlight
whistle
knee pads & work gloves, work boots
food
water
winter-weight clothing (protects the rest of your body from falling debris
a helmet (any will do, hard hat makes the most sense, and inexpensive, tho a bike helmet would work ok)
fire extinguisher

And then the stuff you need for "salvage" of necessities following civil unrest:

Ladder
50'-200' ft of rope
pry bar
axe
bolt cutters
small "bottle" hydraulic jack

basically, a kit like fire fighters would use. You'll probably be doing a fair amount of that as well.
.

It was a Saturday morning, Nov. 9, 1968 and as usual for a Saturday morning my Mama and I were cleaning house when we heard a large BOOM! The house shook a bit at first and we thought a train had derailed on a nearby track. But then, as we were looking at each other and saying, "What was that?" the floor started moving as you describe and Mama yelled, "Get out of the house. It's an earthquake." We ran outdoors and saw the strangest sight we'd ever witnessed. The field in front of the house looked like the lake when roiled by high winds. I had never seen the ground look like waves and I'd certainly never felt the ground shift under my feet that way, to the point that we could hardly keep our feet.

If memory serves me that was about a 5.4 or something in that neighborhood. Our house didn't suffer any visible damage but lots of houses had chimney and foundation cracks. That was the biggest I've experienced on the New Madrid fault. Since then I've felt numerous small ones, the kind that makes your coffee cup skitter across the table but nothing that made me feel like the land had turned to water. Years later when my parents were doing some remodeling of the house they found two giant cracks in the chimney that my Dad said had to have been caused by the quake. Luckily that chimney was no longer in use.

One thing is for sure, you don't forget that first time. It is etched in my memory like the day Kennedy was shot. I can still see my Mama standing there in the yard using a dust mop to keep from falling down as the waves swept by us.

a reply to: RadioRobert

I don't know, man! It's pretty spooky in a high rise building! I thought about that S# the whole rest of the time I was there. Every time something went thump I was ready to bolt.

I ain't skeered of much, but that was pretty damn spooky, being all helpless like that.

In the middle of a field away from buildings might not be too bad, but being inside a building several floors up when it happens...oh man!

a reply to: Graysen

Those are some great suggestions!

Probably not something you'd carry in a suitcase everywhere, but some certainly wouldn't hurt. (i.e. dustmask, gloves, flashlight, etc.)

ETA - heh, might get a few interesting questions at Customs/TSA with all that gear in your bag!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yeah, I'm not looking for the high-rise experience or a 7.0 or anything. Just want to feel one! I might very well decide once was enough haha

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I would be ready to improvise that kit.

You can get the dust masks by the dozen in a pharmacy or big box retailer. I have a whistle in every one of my bags--the air-travel bag has a plastic one. You ought to travel with at least one "micro" flashlight on your keychain or something. Sometimes a small pocket-knife will fit there, too. And air security won't care because keychains don't go through the metal detector. They go into a little tray, that they give to you once you've passed. Jewelry and keychains are not usually inspected. I have a tiny knife and a ferro-rod fire striker on mine, and have never had a DHS notice them.

The rest of it comes from mental notes.

In some high rise buildings, you'll see a fire-fighting station with hose on a reel, and an axe. Fire hose is excellent rope--I've used it to tow vehicles before. That hose will be a lot safer than a rope made of bedsheets! I still carry a cloth hanky (I'm that old.). Wet it and you have a very crude air filter. Maybe you remember where a contractor parks his truck in the lot. Lotta tools in there; probably he has some bolt cutters and a crowbar. Probably a hard-hat and goggles. If he doesn't need them any more...

25 years ago, about. UK midlands.
I wake to the bedroom door shaking.
I thought it was the dog scratching against the door.
he was not there? and the light in the bed room was swinging a Lot.

like any good conspiracy theorist I then check't
to see if a nuclear bomb had gone off. (true!)
No such luck. so went back to bed.