Little Quake, Little Head Shake
So here we are a week after the very minor earthquake here in L.A. and since various other bits of news have become far more focused on, and rightly so.
By now you've heard all of the non-news regarding the quake which was listed at 5.8 and then downgraded to 5.4, and you may have already read some people's personal accounts of the matter on Twitter, or Facebook, or Myspace or elsewhere, so now I can spew out my little experience without seeming too much like I'm just jumping on some sort "look-at-me" band wagon. Honestly, there isn't much danger of that anyway I suppose, as nobody ever reads this blog, and this is really more of an easily accessible record of events for myself, and some close friends and family.
Okay, enough disclaimer. As most of you know, a few weeks after I first moved here I experienced a minor tremor. It started with a low rumble and then a bang sound which shook the house for a second and then everything seemed roll a little bit, almost like the house was suddenly on the water. It wasn't until the rolling that I realized then that I was experiencing an earthquake. Up to that point I assumed that the rumbling had been a garbage truck in our back alley and that it had some how hit the house (thus the bang and the shaking). I truly didn't know for sure that it was a quake until it popped up on the T.V. a moment or two after.
Well, similarly it didn't seem like this was a quake at first either. The two floors above me where I work are in a state of being renovated. For the past year the day has been filled with constant vibrations and rumblings, and moments of the ceiling coming crashing down as a water pipe bursts. It has been truly delightful environment. So last week around 11:40 when the whole floor began experiencing a mild vibration, nobody thought anything of it. Nobody thought much of it when the rumbling intensified. Then the rumbling started to get a little earthy. That is to say it didn't seem quite mechanically even. Everything in the office was beginning to rattle now with an uneveness. A big shake, followed by a little one, followed by a smaller one, followed by an much bigger one etc.
That's when we all started looking at one another, acknowledging that this wasn't the usual construction, and that maybe, just maybe this was some sort of tremor rolling through. Then there was a big BANG (but with a lot of base...not quite a boom), and that's when it all of a sudden got very fake. Well, it felt fake to me, but then I'm not really sure what I expected an earthquake to feel like, and in retrospect now my criticism in the past of Universal Studios seems unwarranted and I apologize. The whole floor was now swaying, and hopping and jerking just as if it were sitting on some sort of a hydraulically controlled platform. It really did feel incredibly mechanically artificial. Despite my smile and laughter a few of us from my department quickly headed for the stairs. Others on the floor were ducking under desks, or just standing around making various exclamations of concern or confusion.
In the stair well, only a few other people were making their way down (literally about five). By the time we got down from the 8th floor to the lobby the quake had been long since over. It was over, in fact before we even got half way to the stairs. In the lobby all the security guards are standing around, a crowd of people (mostly people from the first floor) were being told not to go outside, or rather that they couldn't tell people not to go outside but that they shouldn't and for everyone's safety it would be best if we all stayed in the building. The idea of that, of course, is that if the building starts to fall apart pieces and you're outside the pieces could fall on you and kill or hurt you. My thought on that, however, was that if the building is falling apart I don't want to be inside of it, and all I gotta do is keep my head up and I can certainly run and jump faster than a piece of the building can fall down on me, and again, if the whole building is coming down, I'll take my chances, slim as they might be, on the outside rather than inside. So I went outside.
There were quite a few people out there of the same mind as me, and I stayed out there several minutes. During that time other employees who had been out for lunch were walking up asking what was going on. At street level, the quake was unnoticed. Being in a taller building obviously amplified the whole experience.
After a short while it seemed pretty clear that everything was okay, and all of the "fun" was over, so I headed back in. Inside the same show was playing. The lobby was even more full now and the man was giving the same warning to everybody about going outside. More people were now going outside, choosing this moment to go on their lunch break. I started heading back up to my floor.
Now the stairs were packed with people, everyone telling me that I'm going the wrong way. By the time I got to 4th floor, I was just then running into all of the people from my floor, the 8th floor. They had all just then been told to evacuate.
I got to the eighth floor and the few employees in charge of safety were looking through the departments and bathrooms etc. for any stray employees, and just caught sight of me whip out of the stairs heading back to my desk. The one woman that approached me was very stern about me having to evacuate. I told her that I already had, quite some time ago, and that if you get to the lobby there's a guy down there telling everybody to stay inside. Just the same, I had to leave. SO, back down the stairs I went (this was starting to get a little physically tiring). There was now nobody in the stairwell, the lobby had a very small crowd now, mostly people crowding around the television there to watch the reports on the quake. The security guy was no longer telling anyone to do anything, and in fact some sort of safety inspector,standing beside me, just got word on his walkie talkie that it was safe for everyone to go back to work. Back up the stairs (grr).
As I got back to the 8th floor, slightly sweaty and puffing a little, it occurred to me that it was probably a cohesive emergency plan like this that resulted in so many people losing their lives in the World Trade Center buildings.
I find it very interesting, frightening and yet somehow not entirely surprising that in a land where earthquakes are fairly common, the building I work in has a very sensible, well co-ordinated plan for a fire, and has periodic drills for such, but obviously doesn't have a properly coordinated plan for an earthquake. The folks that simply left the building and by-passed dealing with the non-sense obviously had the right idea. When the next quake hits, I'll be out to lunch to avoid putting my life in the hands of those who are "out-to-lunch".
By now you've heard all of the non-news regarding the quake which was listed at 5.8 and then downgraded to 5.4, and you may have already read some people's personal accounts of the matter on Twitter, or Facebook, or Myspace or elsewhere, so now I can spew out my little experience without seeming too much like I'm just jumping on some sort "look-at-me" band wagon. Honestly, there isn't much danger of that anyway I suppose, as nobody ever reads this blog, and this is really more of an easily accessible record of events for myself, and some close friends and family.
Okay, enough disclaimer. As most of you know, a few weeks after I first moved here I experienced a minor tremor. It started with a low rumble and then a bang sound which shook the house for a second and then everything seemed roll a little bit, almost like the house was suddenly on the water. It wasn't until the rolling that I realized then that I was experiencing an earthquake. Up to that point I assumed that the rumbling had been a garbage truck in our back alley and that it had some how hit the house (thus the bang and the shaking). I truly didn't know for sure that it was a quake until it popped up on the T.V. a moment or two after.
Well, similarly it didn't seem like this was a quake at first either. The two floors above me where I work are in a state of being renovated. For the past year the day has been filled with constant vibrations and rumblings, and moments of the ceiling coming crashing down as a water pipe bursts. It has been truly delightful environment. So last week around 11:40 when the whole floor began experiencing a mild vibration, nobody thought anything of it. Nobody thought much of it when the rumbling intensified. Then the rumbling started to get a little earthy. That is to say it didn't seem quite mechanically even. Everything in the office was beginning to rattle now with an uneveness. A big shake, followed by a little one, followed by a smaller one, followed by an much bigger one etc.
That's when we all started looking at one another, acknowledging that this wasn't the usual construction, and that maybe, just maybe this was some sort of tremor rolling through. Then there was a big BANG (but with a lot of base...not quite a boom), and that's when it all of a sudden got very fake. Well, it felt fake to me, but then I'm not really sure what I expected an earthquake to feel like, and in retrospect now my criticism in the past of Universal Studios seems unwarranted and I apologize. The whole floor was now swaying, and hopping and jerking just as if it were sitting on some sort of a hydraulically controlled platform. It really did feel incredibly mechanically artificial. Despite my smile and laughter a few of us from my department quickly headed for the stairs. Others on the floor were ducking under desks, or just standing around making various exclamations of concern or confusion.
In the stair well, only a few other people were making their way down (literally about five). By the time we got down from the 8th floor to the lobby the quake had been long since over. It was over, in fact before we even got half way to the stairs. In the lobby all the security guards are standing around, a crowd of people (mostly people from the first floor) were being told not to go outside, or rather that they couldn't tell people not to go outside but that they shouldn't and for everyone's safety it would be best if we all stayed in the building. The idea of that, of course, is that if the building starts to fall apart pieces and you're outside the pieces could fall on you and kill or hurt you. My thought on that, however, was that if the building is falling apart I don't want to be inside of it, and all I gotta do is keep my head up and I can certainly run and jump faster than a piece of the building can fall down on me, and again, if the whole building is coming down, I'll take my chances, slim as they might be, on the outside rather than inside. So I went outside.
There were quite a few people out there of the same mind as me, and I stayed out there several minutes. During that time other employees who had been out for lunch were walking up asking what was going on. At street level, the quake was unnoticed. Being in a taller building obviously amplified the whole experience.
After a short while it seemed pretty clear that everything was okay, and all of the "fun" was over, so I headed back in. Inside the same show was playing. The lobby was even more full now and the man was giving the same warning to everybody about going outside. More people were now going outside, choosing this moment to go on their lunch break. I started heading back up to my floor.
Now the stairs were packed with people, everyone telling me that I'm going the wrong way. By the time I got to 4th floor, I was just then running into all of the people from my floor, the 8th floor. They had all just then been told to evacuate.
I got to the eighth floor and the few employees in charge of safety were looking through the departments and bathrooms etc. for any stray employees, and just caught sight of me whip out of the stairs heading back to my desk. The one woman that approached me was very stern about me having to evacuate. I told her that I already had, quite some time ago, and that if you get to the lobby there's a guy down there telling everybody to stay inside. Just the same, I had to leave. SO, back down the stairs I went (this was starting to get a little physically tiring). There was now nobody in the stairwell, the lobby had a very small crowd now, mostly people crowding around the television there to watch the reports on the quake. The security guy was no longer telling anyone to do anything, and in fact some sort of safety inspector,standing beside me, just got word on his walkie talkie that it was safe for everyone to go back to work. Back up the stairs (grr).
As I got back to the 8th floor, slightly sweaty and puffing a little, it occurred to me that it was probably a cohesive emergency plan like this that resulted in so many people losing their lives in the World Trade Center buildings.
I find it very interesting, frightening and yet somehow not entirely surprising that in a land where earthquakes are fairly common, the building I work in has a very sensible, well co-ordinated plan for a fire, and has periodic drills for such, but obviously doesn't have a properly coordinated plan for an earthquake. The folks that simply left the building and by-passed dealing with the non-sense obviously had the right idea. When the next quake hits, I'll be out to lunch to avoid putting my life in the hands of those who are "out-to-lunch".
posted by Linton at 11:08 PM
2 comments
