Earthquake, that was fun!

[jazzdad2007]

Ayala is OK. No damage. It was a wild ride for all of us. Our band director is currently on vacation, so our Percussion Director went to the school to check the facilty. He reported that all was in good shape.

Some minor damage around the city, but noting major. Looks like the brunt of the damage happened outside of the city in Pomona, Diamond Bar and Yorba Linda.

[Chapagne]

we have a giant stash of candles and food...and water...we're always prepped for the next big one

Good idea, but you should never use candles to light your home after an earthquake. After a major one, there are dozens of aftershocks that would be as strong or stronger than the one we had yesterday. Strong enough to knock over your candles and adding the risk of fire to your troubles.

The way I started our earthquake supplies was to buy more of something than we actually use, especially when I had a coupon, when it was on sale or, glory of glories, BOTH. That way we can rotate through our stock of the items and not have to worry about them going stale. It gives us kind of an odd supply (refried beans, canned peaches, applesauce and Ravioli figure prominently), but in an emergency, I don't care what the family wants. We're going to survive, dammit! I also always have a case of water back. When we crack one open, we buy another.

My kids go through quite a few AA batteries, so I bought extras and LED flashlights that use them. Take the lenses off of the flashlights and they make good "candles" for lighting a small area.

QUESTION: Our water heater is now at least 10 years old...maybe 18. It doesn't look like it's going to last much longer. I love the idea of an instant-hot model to save energy, but I see the tank models as being an invaluable source of water in an emergency, assuming they survive the shaking. Thoughts?

Although the damage from quakes isn't funny, the reaction of some people is fun to watch sometimes.

Actually, I find it ridiculous. Most people tend to look at the ceiling the second one hits. What are they waiting for, to see if it will fall? Get under something. The worst that happens is you just crawl back out if it was nothing.

[Wildabeast]

we have a giant stash of candles and food...and water...we're always prepped for the next big one

Good idea, but you should never use candles to light your home after an earthquake. After a major one, there are dozens of aftershocks that would be as strong or stronger than the one we had yesterday. Strong enough to knock over your candles and adding the risk of fire to your troubles.

Not only that, imagine if there was a gas leak.

[Wildabeast]

Check out this video clip of a taping of Judge Judy when the earthquake hit.

[Squirtle]

haven't had an earthquake in the SF area in awhile...i love earthquakes i whoot and shout when there is one! haha

there was one a month or two ago, but it was wimpy. =P

ahh there was one! honestly...that one was small....i was sitting in my friend's dorm room at Dominican U. and everyone started running around and panicking...especially the kid all the way from Colorado who doesn't experience anything out there.

I have I-80 in my backyard, so my first thought was that a car flew off the freeway and hit my house

[fieldshowqueen]

For the next major quake, I was in the dorms at CSULB that fateful morning when the Whittier Quake hit. Just like FSQ says, it's sort of hilarious to see people's reactions. When the Whittier quake hit, I immediately jumped out of bed, threw open my drapes on my dorm room, and was greeted by seeing my Resident Assistant across the way in her nightgown doing the same thing, but she was SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS!! It was sort of funny--in a sad scary sort of way. My roommate TOTALLY freaked out. That was a very strong earthquake.

OH YEAH! I forgot about Whittier! D'uh. My dad bought this really cool 1902 California Bungalow style home that was owned by Sylvester Rideout. The property at one time was 55 acres and was used to develop the California Avocado (dad got 2 of those acres and about 10 different varieties of avocado trees.) It was located in the Whittier hills about 1/2 mile from the epicenter. The house lost the brick chimney and the entire house bounced 4 feet off of the basement foundation (yes it has a basement which is rare in SoCal). Repairs to the house were rather interesting ... the construction company brought in a crane to pick the house up and reset it on the foundation. The entire inside lath and plaster walls were replaced with drywall, and new electrical conduit placed in lieu of the exposed wrapped wiring. The biggest issue was the fiberglass formed-pool which literally hung by blocks off the back hillside. It cracked and almost flooded the neighbors below. Dad moved to Oregon about 5 years later and was hit by the remnants of a hurricane that skirted the Pacific coast. No damage but his reaction was "D**n! I just can't get away from the disasters can I?" LOL.

[Bandmaster]

If you want to check out all the major California earthquakes since the 1700's, visit this website. It is very interesting.

http://www.data.scec.org/chrono_index/quakedex.html

Without looking, can you guess which California earthquake was the strongest? It wasn't the 1906 San Francisco quake!

We seem to go through time periods of low activity that last about 15 to 20 years or so. We look to be in one of those low periods right now. So look on the bright side!

[fieldshowqueen]

I will guess Ft. Tejon. It was in the mid 1800's or so and around 8.9'ish?? Be back in a few with the "results" of my guess.

OK ... I'm back (miss me?) I won't say whether I got it right or wrong ... that would spoil it for everyone else. LOL

[Hostrauser]

If you want to check out all the major California earthquakes since the 1700's, visit this website. It is very interesting.

http://www.data.scec.org/chrono_index/quakedex.html

There are some fantastic pictures of the aftermath of the 1992 Landers Quake and the 1994 Northridge Quake on that page.

[Hostrauser]

Food for thought, part II: today's earthquake was 5.4; the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 was 9.3, literally several million times stronger.

Food for thought, part IIa: yesterday's 5.4 quake rattled for only about 15 seconds; the Indian Ocean earthquake (remember, several million times stronger) shook for 8-10 minutes

[tooweird]

minutes

what is intense was that my parents and sister left thailand the day before...they were gonna drive to Phuket the next day but decided to fly back to Hong Kong where i was staying for vacation. they were afraid i'd be lonely with my grandparents

thank goodness

[Ryan H. Turner]

Food for thought, part II: today's earthquake was 5.4; the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 was 9.3, literally several million times stronger.

Food for thought, part IIa: yesterday's 5.4 quake rattled for only about 15 seconds; the Indian Ocean earthquake (remember, several million times stronger) shook for 8-10 minutes

Thank you---that chronology brought back a very very interesting memory for me. It was the North Palm Springs Earthquake at 0221am on July 8th. I happened to know exactly where I was, who I was with and what I was doing at 0221 on July 8th. It happened to be on a night before I was leaving to go perform in Phoenix, Arizona and I was at my girlfriends house....baking cookies or something. Yeah...anyway...that was quite the earthquake. Scared the crap out of me, and I hadn't even thought of it until just now.

Great website. My dad lived through the 1933 Long Beach quake. Quite the story he tells about that.

[Bandmaster]

My own earthquake story...

My first big one was the Sylmar quake in 1971. I was living in Paramount and it woke me up and I remember reaching up to turn on my clock radio to hear the news and at that very moment the transformer, on the pole outside my bedroom window, blew lit up my whole room. At first I thought my radio blew up. My dad had time to get out bed and walk down the hallway and check on my sister and walk into my room to check on me and the ground was still shaking. But my mom told us that the 1952 Kern County quake felt much worse.

The Whittier Narrows quake I missed because I was driving to work and just didn't feel it. The 1992 Landers and Big Bear quakes rocked our house in Upland real good, but it didn't bother me much because there was no noise, just shaking. The 1994 Northridge quake shock almost as hard in Upland as the Landers quake did, but again was noiseless. The Hecter Mine quake in 1999 shook pretty good too, but silently.

BUT... the Upland quake in 1990 scared the crap out of me. Our house was less than a mile from the epicenter and I was standing on the driveway in front of our house when it hit. It was only a 5.4 but it roared by with sound equal to a 747 flying right over the house. I could see the ground waves passing over the roofline of the house and the double garage door on our garage, that had broken springs on it making it was really hard to lift, started flapping open and closed by almost 3 feet. I had walked out the front of the house to get something out of my car and could hear dishes falling off the shelves and breaking inside the house. Adding lots of noise to the mix really raises the fear factor. So I feel for those in Chino Hills that live on top of it.

[Wildabeast]

haven't had an earthquake in the SF area in awhile...i love earthquakes i whoot and shout when there is one! haha

there was one a month or two ago, but it was wimpy. =P

There was one actually almost 3 months ago to the day with the same magnitude way up in NorCal, but as far as feeling one, there was a 5.6 back in October in the east San Jose area.

[tooweird]

yea that's the one i was talking about...the one in october