It’s kind of a joke in So. Cal. that an earthquake isn’t really an earthquake until you talk to your friends and family about it.

I’ve been in many earthquakes including three serious ones.  The last was in WA state in 2001.  During that time, all phone lines were crammed and I couldn’t get through to my family in CA to let them know I was ok.  I was however, able to IM my sister.. it was the only way to let them know I was ok.  Thank God we have options other than traditional phone lines now.. you’ll see this happening more and more.

I’m about 30 miles to the SE of the epicenter. My chandelier swung, my torch light looked like a metronome, but the computers never missed a beat even though the shaking was side-to-side and then up-and-down for maybe 20 seconds. [They are really VERY long seconds.] I’ve endured much larger ones; one quake in the 70’s tossed nearly all the water from my 28,000 gallon swimming pool through the closed window in my bedroom. Now THAT was scary, feeling the rock and roll that woke me up at 6AM and then the glass shattered all over the bedroom which then flooded with water. But yesterday’s quake didn’t have me running for safety; instead I got up and hurried over to the torch light and unplugged it. By then it was over. Of course, no matter how many you’ve been through, there’s always the hypersensitivity that follows for the next few hours, wondering if what you experienced was the prelude to something much bigger.

Have been through a 6.9 roller and a 6.8 shaker.  The aftershocks of those quakes were in the 5. range for a couple of weeks, so a 4.5 is kind of like a small wave in terms of earthquake strength.  I had a friend who had the ability to hear the aftershocks of the Northridge quake as they were starting, and which direction they were coming from.  I got a kick out of that.

We were watching nature on PBS and my 16 year old said "we’re having an earthquake".  I felt something, but nothing remarkable but I was not near the epicenter.  We didn’t think twice about it.  We just wait and see if we need to get moving.   Makes us check our flashlights by our beds, double check the shoes under the bed and then my husband takes a look at the old greased up wrench he has tied near the gas shut off.  Got to keep them greased up so they don’t rust in the elements. 

Glad I was reminded about the first aid kit.  We are thinking of getting a small shed to put our camping stuff in so that if a quake hits we can get to the stuff easier.  They keep threatening about the big one so what else can we do? 

Be as prepared as possible. I had a long talk with a rather infamous civil engineer who’s constructed bridges and dams, and he is not optimistic about any of them in CA, or the rest of the nation. Last January, he said it’ll be the aftershocks that total a great land mass of California - so please learn what to do, and yes, turn off that gas.

That’s what will be the greatest danger! Broken gas lines. We said that years ago and USGS meetings brought that out, too, but little was mentioned until about the gas mains, until a decade ago.

Can you take courses? Michigan isn’t sitting too pretty, either with their enormous fault moving from the south.