Friday, April 18, 2008

Shake, Rattle and Roll

My alarm goes off at 4:30am. At 4:37am, I felt my bed shake. At first I thought a massive semi must be going down my quiet residential street looking for the next build site. But all was quiet...not a sound. No truck. I remember thinking to myself...hhmmpph what are the chances of an earthquake in Chicago and going about my morning routine. That was until I turned on the TV and this was the top story. Who woulda thunk it? The earthquake was centralized in downstate Illinois, but was felt as far north as Wisconsin and as far south as Alabama. What I felt wasn't very strong...no pictures fell over, no dishes rattled (well that I know of, but I was upstairs). My dogs didn't go nutso. It was like being on one of those vibrating beds you see in the cheap motels on TV. The shaking only lasted a minute or less, but it was my first experience with an earthquake. Growing up in the Midwest, you have fire drills in school AND tornado drills. Tornadoes are something I know about...I know what to do when the sirens start their song. But I have no clue what to do in an earthquake!! That wasn't something we were taught in school...wasn't something we ever had to think about. The only experience with earthquakes I'd had prior to today was seeing the aftermaths on TV in places like San Francisco.

On a separate note...FamilyofTwo is going through a rough time right now. If you haven't already, please stop by her blog and give her some ((HUGS))

4 comments:

HereWeGoAJen said...

I lived in California for years. We had earthquake drills in school! (You have to crawl under your desk and hang on to the legs. Otherwise the desks wobble away.) But, I never felt an earthquake in the whole eleven years we lived there!

Morgan said...

Man! Glad everyone's ok. We live on the New Madrid fault...like, directly on it...so we've been waiting for the BIG ONE for years.

We have family in Mt. Vernon, IL, which I think is on the Southern end where it all went down. Very scary.

Familyofthree said...

Thank you for thinking of me.

I can't imagine living in the middle of the country and having to worry about Earth quakes....eek.

Denise said...

I saw that on the news today! Crazy. You know, I think it is strange that they only prepare us for natural disasters most likely to happen in our area. It's like educators expect people to never travel or leave where they are growing up. What if you vacation somewhere that has different natural disasters?