Shaker in California

[Leafs_Pam]

I'm sure you guys have heard we had an interesting (NOT!!) Easter Afternoon in California. An Earthquake hit at 3:40pm 104 miles SSE of Tijuana Mexico. Tijuana is about 40 miles south of me just over the border. They kept saying the earthquake was in Mexicali which is also just across the border from California but it was actually 38 miles SSE of Mexicali. I heard on the news this morning it was felt as far north as the Bay Area. Mexicali and Calexico are both border towns. Calexico in California and Mexicali in Baja. They said there wasn't as much damage in Mexicali as there was in Calexico. This morning supposedly there was another earthquake. The Sports Arena is about 24 miles south of where I am close to downtown San Diego. Their windows broke. I felt 4 of the aftershocks after the earthquake yesterday but didn't feel this morning's earthquake. They reported that some people felt the initial earthquake yesterday for about 60 seconds. I don't know if it was that long but I do know it went on for quite a while. It wasn't rolling it was jarring, and scared the heck out of me. I really hate earthquakes. Other than being scared everything is fine here. They say we may have another earthquake in the next few days. We had around a 5.0 earthquake in the Mexicali area a month ago and we felt it here at work. I am on the 11th floor of my building and I didn't know whether to stay put or to run. I stayed put, and scared. Where I grew up in California if we had earthquakes they were so deep we couldn't feel them. I didn't feel my first one until I was 18 and living in San Jose.

[Barilko]

I figured you must have felt that one. Glad to hear that all is well aside from the rattled nerves.

Didn't feel it up here, but then again the in-laws and their kids were over here visiting, so they were creating more havoc than most earthquakes. ;D

[Leafs_Pam]

Boy your lucky!! Within 8 minutes after I got to work yesterday I felt an aftershock. Then around 3:40pm I felt another aftershock. I really, really, really hate earthquakes. Without thinking about it and with my boss in his office I said outloud "stop shaking!!" It's bad enough being on a ground floor but 11 stories up is so awful you wonder if you can run down 11 floors if a bad on hits. Maybe if I had grown up with earthquakes I wouldn't freak out so much. I thought moving away from the Bay Area I wouldn't experience them in San Diego county. Ha!! The week before I moved here I had to come down and I stopped for dinner in the Grapevine about 30 miles north of LA and no sooner than I ordered my dinner there was an earthquake. Within a couple of months of moving here there were 3 Earthquakes here. I read on the U.S.G.S. Website yesterday they think a massive Earthquake (8.0 or greater) for Southern California is about 80 years overdue. Guess how that makes me feel. I think I've felt more earthquakes here since moving South than I did the last 10 years in the Bay Area. The Sunday Earthquake wasn't on the San Andreas Fault. It was on another fault that runs parallel to San Andreas Fault and it's been over 100 years since they had a major Earthquake on that fault. They plan on studying that fault now. Too bad they didn't study it earlier.

[stugats1]

Must be horrible to be a part of these... WE get all kinds of weather here but Earthquakes are so rare (right now that is)

[Leafs_Pam]

Apr 6, 2010 12:33:50 GMT -5 stugats1 said:

Must be horrible to be a part of these... WE get all kinds of weather here but Earthquakes are so rare (right now that is)

I hope you are always spared Earthquakes. I imagine Ryan will feel one eventually if he hasn't yet. Vancouver is on the same Earthquake fault the Bay Area is on. I wonder if Ryan knew that before he moved there.

There is something in all parts of the country. Earthquakes in California, Tornados in the Mid West, Hurricanes in the South East, Flooding in the North East (and sometimes Hurricanes too).

With Hurricanes and Flooding their is advance warning so you can get out if necessary (unless the Hurricane is in the middle of the night). With Tornadoes there is usually warning so you can get out (or get in Tornado cellars?), unless it is the middle of the night. With Earthquakes there is no advance warning. Day or night you are at the mercy of the ground shaking and you can't get out if necessary even during the day. I guess that's what freaks me out so much. That and the earth shaking and jolting (sometimes they roll instead) under me not knowing how bad it will get.

[TMan]

Can't imagine what that must feel like. Hope I never exp it.

[Leafs_Pam]

Apr 9, 2010 13:43:22 GMT -5 TMan said:

Can't imagine what that must feel like. Hope I never exp it.

I hope you don't either. Its really scary. Although I have experienced Earthquakes the last 45 years they freak me out as much now as it did the first time I felt one. There have been hundreds of aftershocks every day since Sunday and I feel at least 3 at work every day. Luckily of the hundreds of aftershocks every day, most of them are under 2.5 so we don't feel those, thanks goodness.

[Leafs_Pam]

I was in an all day class at work today in another building on the 3rd floor. Just before 4:30pm I felt an earthquake. Everyone felt it but I was the first one that felt and reacted to it. Yeah, I freaked out but I kept it mostly internally. I didn't want a bunch of employees I didn't know to see me freak out. It was in the same general area of Mexicali as the one on Easter Sunday. I HATE earthquakes!!

[Leafs_Pam]

Its time for me to whine again. I can take just so many Quakes and strong aftershocks and then I have to whine about it. Sorry guys, but they really scare me s--tless, and even more so since the 1989 Santa Cruz Quake that even caused damage as far north as San Francisco.

September 1st of this year will be 7 years since I moved from the San Jose area to San Diego county (and I still hate it here!! I was hoping it wouldn't be more than a couple of years). I swear there have been more earthquakes here in the past almost 7 years than I felt the last 14 years I lived in the Bay Area.

We had an earthquake yesterday and I saw them talk about it on Good Morning America this morning. They sort of misreported it. They said it was around Palm Springs. Wrong!! It was near us again and it wasn't an aftershock from the Easter Earthquake. However, they did feel it as far north as Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

I watched the 11pm news last night and found out we have 3 Earthquake faults here. Elsinore Fault, San Jacinto Fault and the famous San Andreas Fault. Elsinore is on the left, San Jacinto in the middle and the most famous one San Andreas on the right (I think San Andreas is the Fault that runs from Northern Mexico to Vancouver, B.C.)

The Easter Quake was on the Elsinore Fault. They said at Easter they don't know much about that Elsinore Fault because the last major quake on it was in 1890. They plan to study it more because of the Easter Quake. And there have been 100's of Aftershocks since Easter.

At about 4:53pm yesterday I was at my desk, 11th floor of the building, standing up. I was changing connections on my work laptop. I had just gotten up from crawling under my desk to get a wire. Next thing I know it hit. I felt the Quake and I could also feel the building swaying. The Easter Quake was something like 6.9. Yesterday's was 5.4 but it was such a rough Quake it felt harder than the Easter Quake. Until I saw the news last night I thought it was an aftershock from the Easter Quake.

Since the quake yesterday, in 21 hours, of the 560 aftershocks in California, 550 were in our area. One of today's aftershocks was 50 miles east of work/30 miles east of my home.

Usually when we get Earthquakes it's warmer weather but since Tuesday San Diego County has been one of the coldest areas in California. Right now it's 68 overcast and drizzly at home, 64 overcast and drizzly at work, 59 in Santa Cruz, and 71 and mostly sunny in San Jose/Campbell (I threw in the Bay Area/Santa Cruz so Alan could see we are almost as cool as his area). It has been rainy for 2 days so it wasn't exactly Earthquake weather here. It's usually in the high 80s coast side and high 90's inland, and sometimes the low 100's inland, at this time of year in SD county.

Since we have had Quakes on 2 of the faults I wouldn't be surprised if the San Andreas fault has one. They seem to be getting closer all the time. Man do I hate them!! I need to find a way out of So. Cal. I can't escape the Earthquakes but all these Quakes makes living here even more undesirable to me.

[stugats1]

I meant to send you a text Pam to see if you were okay. I was in Nebraska for work and heard the news.. Tough to know that at any given moment a big one could come

[Leafs_Pam]

Hi Jim. Yeah physically I'm fine but I'm still a littled rattled. Thanks for asking. :-) I found out last night there aren't just 3 faults, there are more than a dozen faults here. I read an article today that said Scientist said there were trigger earthquakes on other faults created by the Easter Quake. They think we might have a bigger one. As long as I have been alive they've been saying "the big one" will hit. So far it hasn't but that is always at the back of my mind when we have Quakes like Easter, this week, the Northridge Quake (LA Area) in 1993 and the Santa Cruz area Quake in 1989. When we have a hard one my reaction is, is this going to be the big one? I guess after 50+ years of hearing about "the big one" it isn't too silly to get rattled.

[TMan]

Guess theres no such thing as a transfer in your job?? Like Buffalo or somewhere close to ACC??

Like I said before I've never been thru an earthquake. Rode out a couple cyclones over here but never a quake. Can't be fun wondering when the shaking is going to subside.

[Leafs_Pam]

Nope, I'm stuck here. Tornadoes, Cyclones and Hurricanes are devastating and lives are lost just like with big Earthquakes, but I think most of the time warnings are set off for them so people can run for cover. With Earthquakes there is no warning.