Sitting at home late saturday night, after attempting to go to Ita's wake, I realized the table was shaking. The shaking began graduatally, and out the open window, there were some people shouting. The shaking quickly grew such that I could feel the apartment moving at least a few centimeters. Somewhere outside, there was the clatter and crash of falling dishes. I just sat in the chair, transfixed, and about a minute later, the shaking stopped.
The earthquake was a magnitude 5.8, a somewhat serious temblor. No visible damage to my apartment. We didn't even lose power or internet. However, it's pretty scary. There's a feeling of surreal powerlessless as the room moves.
Online, people reported in from various neighborhoods around the city. Didn't sound like there was any major damage anywhere. Sirens began to sound and I could hear helicopters making rounds overhead. Apparently the city government does a city wide patrol to look for damage immediately after a quake. They must have learned something from 1985.
What I should have done was grab my emergency earthquake pack and ducked under a table or a doorway. Making a run for the street isn't really going to work since I'd have to run about 100+ meters under four other buildings. What I did was just sit in my chair thinking, "is this an earthquake?" I dont even have an emergency earthquake kit.
There's really no time. Earthquakes come and go in a matter of minutes. A kit would be useful though- something with water and some dried food and my passport, roll of gauze, particle mask, flashlight, whistle. Maybe build it into a hard hat.
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