Earthquake N. California

[ShivaFan]

We just had a long rolling, pretty strong earthquake in the Bay Area. I woke up in the middle of the night (oddly after having waking up about 5 minutes prior, getting up, then going back to bed!), things were fine. After initially getting up, I went back to bed and lay down. Then the earthquake started (zero connection to the dream, just good luck I had awaken).

I turned on a CBS affiliate, and about 10 minutes later all sorts of calls were coming in. It seems it was strong up in the American Canyon area, everyone is confirming my experience that it started off low then went into a long rolling quake, my house shook but I am down below Napa and in the SF Bay Area.

I have been through many quakes including the bad ones, this one while not damaging felt like a 6 point.

No official reports yet. Hope it isn't the Hayward Fault, that would be bad news bears for the entire Northern California.

The thing about this one that was a bit scary was it was a rolling one that increased then rolled, it rolled for a long time. This is concerning in that it could be a pre-quake to something soon larger.

So if we folks drop into a big hole in the next 24 huurs, I just want to say:

Jai Hind

 

[Thruve]

So, are all the structures there made to withstand earthquakes?

 

[ShivaFan]

I don't know yet. No official word. Just calls after calls now into a local CBS news AM radio affiliate. It sounds like it was more stronnger up in the Napa area just over the Benicia bridge North of the SF proper Bay Area. Felt as far as East to Tracy.

Up North, callers had stuff coming off shelves.

There are typically pre-quakes (smaller). Hope this wasn't a premie to what is next. The rolling means to me the pressure, but not the pop. The pop then pops and spooks up.

 

[Thruve]

For example, where I live everything built within the last ten years is made of solid concrete, usually all stories of ones house or building along with tile roofs to withstand hurricane winds. The only houses/buildings that get utterly destroyed are the places not built as such. Shingle roofs you say? Have fun picking them all up off your neighbors lawn after a hurricane! Can you walk while an earthquakes happening? Or do you fall/stumble/ lose balance?

 

[ShivaFan]

I was already awake but flat on my bed. You just - freeze. You wait. Like an idiot, you do not do anything. That is what happens. You just wait. "Will it get worse?"

 

[ShivaFan]

... you are taught and trained to do things regarding cover just in case.

But in reality, in every quake I have been including once in a restaurant, everyone whose been there done that (Californians experienced in quakes) just .... stops. Stops and freezes in place waiting, "Will it get worse?" Waiting for it to get worse. This is the typical California response.

The next concern is, will the next bigger one come.

Then the next concern is - there are not enough cops. If it is bad enough, will there be too many activities that government and emergency teams would have to be responsible for and responding to, gas leaks etc., too busy to secure society, and then comes the thoughts of the very real potential of looting, home invasions and riots from thugs who simply will try to take advantage of the situation - that would be after a big, big one.

So now people wait, and say, "another after quake coming?"

 

[ShivaFan]

... Highway 37 bridge closing down, it is buckeling.

This is the one on 37 cutting horizontal just north of the water when you head into the North bound routes to the wine fields.

 

[ShivaFan]

... going back to bed. But first some graham crackers.

 

[ShivaFan]

So I am up now again. I feel bad for the child. Also a lot of fish aquariums went over, I feel bad even for the pet fish.

We were 35 to 40 miles or more from American Canyon, so I do not think folks here were facing damage, but I do not know. But we do have a neighborhood skunk in our area, who is loved by many. Hope it didn't scare him.

My garage needs clean up again, but nothing came down. But for many folks in the Bay Area, they keep all sorts of junk piled up on those metal wire shevling which then comes down on top of their parked vehicles.

Lots of damage in Napa, however, fires, hospitalizations, Napa city proper and other towns are already exhausting their public, fire/police, infrastructure resources and such. I wonder if petrol pumps are working, they are typically well constructed so they are probably operational. Lots of gas leaks reported, however. Number of injuries at 89 being reported.

Not to favor one or the other area, but things would be much more problematic if the center of the quake was 50 miles south.

Lots of dogs and cats in our area. Oddly there was no barking or such, so perhaps the saying that dogs will give a pre-warning is a myth.

 

[Phil25]

Have you faced any other worse Natural Disaster or a bigger Earthquake?

 

[ShivaFan]

Oh yes, don't remember the exact year but I do know there was a "big game" between the SF Giants and Oakland A's (Athletics) baseball teams, many were recording the game on "VCRs" since they were either at work or at the game.

Sort of the worst part of those larger quakes, that one was stronger than this one, is how employers expect employees to drop everything and save the day for them instead of checking on family. I just happened to be at work and huge computer systems, racked down and bolted, were going swish swash with sounds like "keeeezzzzzeeekakakakazzzzzz" crazy nut stuff. Then frankly all the men and boys, not the women, had to, did, and were expected to run around and save the day while everything and systems crashed, etc., a freeway that was stacked on top of another collapsed down on top of the one below crushing cars and people, even though the gals and older folks were evacuated, we were not initially, then had to go back in. The management took all the credit later.

But then folks just started abondoning the site to check on their families. Because of worry of an "after quake" called an after shock, which typically is weaker but structures then are now weakened and sometimes the after shocks cause even more damage than the initial quake.

And sometimes the "after-quake" can be even stronger.

Depending on the areas, looters and the thug and scum take advantage of the situation. In a "911" situation, forget any help from police for the most part, you will be on your own since they are too busy blocking roads, checking overpasses etc.. They also have families as well, they are thinking about them.

Napa area is "country bumpkin", that is where our vineyards and wineries are, and folks in agra work and farm workers, small special interest shops and stuff, I like the areas and there should be no trouble. When the big one hits L.A., more will die from the hands of thugs than the quake itself. Bank my life on it, that's going to be the fact.

 

[Riverwolf]

I had a chess board set up in the basement some time ago, which I just kind of leave there. Surprisingly enough, when I came down here to check up on the damage when I woke up ('cause I wasn't going down these not-to-code stairs right afterwards with the risk of an aftershock), it was still perfectly intact. ^_^

I'm going to check up on a farm I interned at for a while, which is in Petaluma and so closer to the epicenter than I am (I'm on the other side of the Benicia bridge... and I've chillingly come to the realization that I'm literally right in front of a major refinery).

Lots of dogs and cats in our area. Oddly there was no barking or such, so perhaps the saying that dogs will give a pre-warning is a myth.

My girlfriend's dog started barking a few seconds before it hit, waking her up.

What I suspect is that she (the dog) heard or felt the rumbling coming up.

Have you faced any other worse Natural Disaster or a bigger Earthquake?

I was alive for the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989(this one:

Oh yes, don't remember the exact year but I do know there was a "big game" between the SF Giants and Oakland A's (Athletics) baseball teams, many were recording the game on "VCRs" since they were either at work or at the game.

), but was only 2 at the time, so I don't remember it. My Mom says that she was carrying me up the stairs to the house(of which we have over 25, half of which are concrete and not up to the modern code), and got to the top just as it hit. She tells me that if the shaking had hit just a second earlier, or if she had been just a bit slower, she might have dropped me.

As far as natural disasters go, this 'quake last night was about as big as I've ever experienced, though it wasn't quite as dramatic as a big hailstorm I had to walk through to get home back when I was in High School. We do get Earthquakes all the time, but they're usually very small, so if I even notice them, I may not even realize that it's an Earthquake until a few seconds after its over.