we were on our way out to the bookstore, halfway down the stairs. we heard the noise. what was that? the air conditioning? a truck outside? there is construction on campus. oh, the building is shaking…. it’s an earthquake.
we quickly ran down the stairs and outside. who knew how big this earthquake was going to be? once outside, it took me a couple of seconds to figure out if it was over. i stood still and felt the ground moving back and forth under my feet. over in the corner i watched the plants sway back and forth. this wasn’t so bad.
i’ve lived in SoCal most of my life, so i’ve had a couple earthquakes under my belt. i figured it was around a 5ish from the way it felt. the USGS reported it as a 5.8, but it’s been downgraded to a 5.4.
buildings around campus were evacuated and since we were already outside, we kind of got stuck outside, corralled to the parking lot. otherwise, i would have just gone back to work. eventually, i walked back into the building, where several other employees were just sitting there at their desk, working.
you’ve got to hand it to californians, approximately 4 minutes after the rockin’ and rollin’, everything was back to normal. the media on the other hand desperately searched for a news story. they showed photographs from all over the southland of shampoo bottles that fell off shelves and took calls from people that described how their dogs acted strangely shortly before the earthquake.
all in all, no big deal. ask again after at least a 6.5.