that time i thought we'd die, but we survived the earthquake

as i'm sure many of you have heard via numerous media outlets, washington, d.c. got rocked by a 5.9 earthquake yesterday. crazy? you better believe it! on sunday, chris, my sister lauren (but i've always called her clarence, so you can, too), and i planned a last minute trip to d.c. for tuesday since clarence has this week off of work for vacation. so we got up before the sun, headed to d.c., and ended up with one crazy memory! i knew i'd do a lot of talking about the earthquake, plus i have a lot of pictures i want to share in general, so i'm doing the non-earthquake post tomorrow!

here we are, just three people in hats with no idea that an earthquake is less than an hour from happening! the earthquake story: we rode the metro into union station where they have a ton of places to eat lunch (because i love food, i'll share: clarence and i had greek, and chris had jamaican). a story up from the metro line, but still one story underground is where we ate. clarence and i just sat down with our haagen-dazs ice cream when we felt a slow, gentle rumble that we assumed was a train. then the rumbling got louder, the building started to sway, i saw the floor above us moving (in case you haven't been to union station, the floor we were on isn't completely closed from the ground floor; it's open in the center all the way to the top of the domed atrium), and large pieces of the ceiling from the atrium started to crumble and fall through the first floor onto and all around us. people we screaming, the stairwells and escalators were full, we had dust in our eyes from the crumbling ceiling, and all i could do was sit wide-eyed, looking at what was going on around me, terrified the building would crush and kill us. side note: i am NOT cool under pressure. chris pulled clarence and i up and screamed at us to get between the columns (can i just say how useful it is to have an architect husband?) because we'd get trampled on the steps or escalator. the earthquake didn't last long, but because no one knew for a few minutes what had happened, we also didn't know that 1. the building wasn't going to collapse, and 2. that it wasn't a terrorist attack. i have never trembled so much or felt so not-in-control of my body in my life.

i told chris after we got home last night that had i known the building wasn't going to cave in and kill us, i would have thought to take a video of the ceiling falling inside union station, as well as the evacuation and pandemonium on the streets. nearly all of the buildings in d.c. were being evacuated, so as you can imagine, the streets, sidewalks, parks, etc. were filled beyond capacity with people. we walked maybe a mile to this courtyard in the judiciary square area and watched a fireman inspect a section of an old building which housed a subway restaurant and apartments that had crumbled. by this time i'd calmed down... luckily.

unfortunately all monuments and museums were closed either for the rest of the day or indefinitely, so we did a lot of walking, a lot of talking, and some sight-seeing where we didn't need to go in a building. on our way to the white house we stopped and watched as this helicopter slowly circle around the washington monument looking for structural damage. this morning we discovered that damage was found and the monument is closed indefinitely. there was a couple on the news that said they were in the top of the monument (and if you've ever seen it, you know just how high up that is) during the earthquake, and that the structure swayed about a foot, and like us, they were hit with pieces of the crumbling building.

now, my west coast friends, hear me out... east coast buildings are not built to earthquake codes seeing as how the last large one in this area was a 4.8 and occurred in the nineteenth century, so you can't be sure they're not coming down on you. and then there's the scientific aspect... west coast earthquakes are very localized due to the plates and the movement, but here, because our earthquake is caused by an entire plate shifting under us, not just by a faultline, and our soil is so much more dense, an earthquake in virginia can be felt as far west a chicago, as far south as alabama, and as far north as canada. seriously, this was unnerving!

so that's my story about tuesday! how was your day? did you feel the earthquake?

20 comments:

  1. Ahh, it was crazy! Glad everyone's okay. I felt it in New York. Knowing that those old buildings aren't built with earthquakes in mind definitely made me a bit nervous.

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  2. i thought of you yesterday after hearing about it, so glad you guys are okay!!

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  3. Well, I was outside innocently walking back from the mailbox & heard my house rattling so hard I thought a pterodactyl or something was coming out of it - windchimes were going nuts, door was rattling, I was swaying. And all I could think to yell (to myself I might add) was "What the *BLEEP* was that!!??" over and over. Quite exciting!!

    Glad you guys are okay!!

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  4. I work in Arlington on the 14th floor of a 14 story building and it was possibly one of the most unnerving/scary moments of my life!
    Would not have wanted to be up in the Monument...eek!

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  5. The other part of the east coast earthquake that's different from a west coast earthquake is -- like you said -- everyone immediately thought it was a terrorist attack. That makes things a bit scarier while it's actually happening.

    In other news, I just realized I need to PayPal you for your necklaces! I will do that today :)

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  6. Texas was unshaken, but I must have found out about it 20 minutes after it happened and I have a lot of friends on the East Coast. Mini mini panic party! To be honest, a video would have been SO so cool C: BUT safety first.

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  7. Ah that's so scary! Glad youre okay! I live in new jersey and felt it while in staples. I though it was really dizzy and grabbed onto the checkout counter! Everyone freaked out for the next two hours. You're right, the east coast isn't prepared for that at all.

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  8. Glad you all are ok! From your standpoint of the earthquake yesterday, that musta been really scary. I would've had the same thoughts as to wth it could be!

    For me, I just felt tiny vibrations and all of a sudden my metal bookshelf started rattling. Uno went to hide about 3 minutes before that actually happened. I was just thrown off guard and didn't even know what to think of it. Honestly, I thought it was supernatural... as always with me. haha

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  9. That is crazy specially since most of the buildings in the East coast are super old. I would have been terrified because earthquakes are not commong there and like you said buildings are not built to withstand an Earthquake. I am just glad you guys are okay. It is crazy to think that there was particles of ceiling falling off.

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  10. whoa that is crazy! i am glad you guys are ok! i have friends in boston and even northern maine that said they felt it, but nothing here in gloucester... yikes!

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  11. 1km is sooo shallow, must have been super scary. Glad you're okay! As for (some) West Coast people on Twitter especially- I'm so annoyed by the my-earthquake-is-bigger-than-yours attitude so many seem to have. I grew up with frequent relatively-small earthquakes and considered myself 'used to' them, but after Christchurch and Japan, all earthquakes make me shake with fear.

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  12. Wow! What's really crazy is that the buildings there are not at all up to code. In this day & age it's just ridiculous. Honestly if an earthquake is that small I usually don't feel them. & we get all different sorts of quakes here, from hard jolts to rolling ones that last minutes & are far reaching such as yours. The geography here is crazy. But to think of being in a big city during a medium sized quake under buildings that are not up to standards...that's just insane. I'm so glad you're okay.

    To compare, it was 1999 & I was in band heading to Vegas for a competition {Ruthy was there} we were stopped at state line at Buffalo Bills which is a tall hotel with a roller coaster that it just feet from the hotel so that you can see it go by from the windows. At 4am it starts shaking. It's a 7.2 in the local desert. You could feel the building sway & see the roller coaster get close & then far from the building itself. It's a brick building up to code. & I knew that we were all fine. There was no doubt. Honestly I was annoyed at the few people who were freaking out. But I mean, the contrast is just huge! Those old capitol buildings were you were are not safe. But I'm so glad you are! <3 {sorry for the rambling}

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  13. Okay, now I feel bad for making fun of y'alls east coast earthquake. :) You have officially had a more dramatic earthquake experience than I've ever had in the Earthquake Land that is California! However, one did wake me up last night, and I was pissed about it.

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  14. Oh my gosh. That sounds terrifying. Everyone loses their shit we have little earthquakes in Arkansas, but that one sounds serious!

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  15. So glad that everyone is ok. Now it's just a crazy memory. Hopefully that's it and there won't be anymore.

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  16. Insane! I didn't feel it in Maine and was pretty bummed about it. My sister lives in Boston and her whole house shook! It annoyed me how the west coasters mocked us...how many times have we listened to them whine about so called "blizzards"?! Hehe :)

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  17. I've never felt an earthquake. I've been in a hurricane, but that's pretty different. Glad you're okay!!

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  18. I AM GLAD YOU GUYS DIDNT DIE!!!!!!
    I would have been going crazy! just a tad if i had felt it.

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  19. my parents felt the earthquake in West Virginia! crazy! they said it was so scary!

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