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07/29/2008: "Reelin' And A-Rockin'"

So I'm making a rare guest appearance in my work office and sitting through the second long teleconference of the day with folks scattered all over the country, when I feel the floor start to shake. Normally, since our is a pretty lightweight building, that means that some gorilla is sprinting to the lunch wagon. In this case, though, it kept growing and kept going ... yup - it's an earthquake. I had to tell the folks on the telecon - simultaneously with our reps in Long Beach and Huntington Beach - that I had to leave the building because of the shaking. All they wanted to know is what it felt like ...

Every part of the country faces some kind of natural disaster threat, but for some reason I think earthquakes seem to freak out people in other regions more than the rest. Maybe it's because there's no warning, or because it's totally random, but it's always the first thing I hear when I'm meeting with people and tell them I live in LA. "Oh, man - how do you deal with the earthquakes?" To be honest, compared with tornados and hurricanes, I'll take the earthquakes. Unless you live in one of those well-established epicenter regions (how ya doin', Northridge!) or live in a particularly susceptible building, all you're going to have to do is pick up a few things off the floor. Compare that to Greenburg, KS - no, thanks!

That said, I have a message for all of you who are new to SoCal since the last big earthquake: run now. Head back to New Jersey or Indiana or wherever you came from. Nothing good can come from staying in this earthquake-riddled region, and you risk life and limb by staying.

Oh, and take five of your friends along with you ...

UPDATE: The shaker's been downgraded to a 5.4 magnitude quake, technically classified as "moderate". Normally, a 5.4 wouldn't even wake me up, but this one seemed to last longer and shake stronger than your garden variety moderate quake. I suppose that's because the epicenter was closer to the urban LA basin than most of the ones we get (the famous San Andreas fault runs further east), and it was relatively close to the surface - only about 7 miles underground.

My next door neighbors moved here from Arizona about 5 years ago, and this was their first real quake. They're pretty loud, too, so I can hear them as I'm writing this excitedly describing it to relatives on the phone. $5 says they lead that eastward exodus ...