I remember it like it was yesterday. I was on the 8th floor of my office building at work when my desk started slowly shaking. Then the shaking became more violent. My first thought: What the hell? My second thought: Oh my god, a plane is going to run into my building. I'm gonna die. My third thought: Oh hey, this must be an earthquake!
It lasted about 20 seconds and honestly by the end of it I had a smile on my face (that's not what she said). I felt like I went on a roller coaster ride.
Luckily, damage in DC was minimal but for us east coasters the earthquake was a reason to boast. A big "In your face, we can deal with a sudden movement of the earth's crust caused by the release of stress accumulated along geologic faults or by volcanic activity...just like anyone on the west coast!" For west coasters, it was a reason to make fun of east coasters. Which is fine, east coasters defintely deserve to be made fun of but I'd love to see Angelinos deal with a quarter inch of snow. This was one of my favorite articles I read after the great DC earthquake of 2011. My favorite line is definitely:
But can we wimpy East Coasters just have our moment of absolutely shitting ourselves in fear as our non-earthquake-proofed buildings wobble and creak around us? Can we crawl around on our carpets to survey the paltry damage—look, a book fell off a shelf! That could have given someone a serious goose-egg!—without some Californian standing smugly in the doorframe like they learned in grade school, chewing on a PowerBar from the earthquake preparedness kit they carry around in a Lakers fanny pack at all times?
And you know what, in 6+ months I've been here I have only felt one earthquake (a light rumble that woke me up in the morning). So far the DC earthquake is the biggest (and best!) quake I've ever been through.
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