Shaken, Not Stirred

Well, that was interesting! My first earthquake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. While not a Big Deal like the earthquakes in Japan and San Francisco, this one was felt by many more people because the shock waves traveled further in the relatively older and colder rocks of the east coast.

My "I Love Me" Shrine, Toppled Like a House of Cards

Oh, the humanity!

Funny story. A reporter from my hometown paper was out to do an interview and tour the Pentagon for a 9/11 story. So I took her to the Executive Dining Room and we were having a late lunch and talking about 9/11. A little before 2 pm, we were among the last remaining diners and it was pretty quiet. Suddenly, everything started swaying. The cooks started going nuts in the kitchen. I didn't hear anything fall or break, but you'd have thought pots and pans were flying everywhere. One said, "That's it, I'm outta here" and ran out. Another asked us if we had felt anything in the dining area. I guess if one was in the kitchen, the kitchen felt like the epicenter. Some diners paid early and left their meal, but the only panic I saw was from the kitchen staff. 

It felt like a slow roll. It wasn't a violent shaking. More like about 15 seconds of sitting in an inner tube floating in a swimming pool. I had never been in an earthquake before and did not immediately figure out what was going on. There wasn't any explosion, so I wasn't too worried, and we finished our meal. 

So then I took the reporter back to my old office area on the 4th corridor (where American 77 hit) and that's when we saw that a pipe had burst, sending a flood of water down over desks, books, and computers. People were bringing in big trash trolleys to catch the water and trying to salvage what they could. I am afraid my reporter got a bit more adventure than she bargained for!

We took the Metro to and from Arlington National Cemetery, which was an interesting ride since there had been a sink hole on the Orange line, and now all the trains were limited to 15 mph until all the tracks could be inspected. Later, I dropped the reporter off at the airport at 6:30 and there were some damaged ceiling tiles. By the time I finally got home after a very slow Metro ride to the last station, I found things shaken up a bit, but no real damage: some glasses and paper towels fell over and the computer monitor was askew. A picture fell off a shelf and landed on the plastic cover of my 1970's era record cleaning kit, shattering the plastic. Oh, the humanity!

I heard on the radio that Washington Monument and National Cathedral were damaged. I didn't even know we were on a fault line. I certainly don't want to minimize the very real fear that some people experienced, or the very real property damage that occurred. 

Washington Post offered a more detailed look at the actual damage.

NBC Washington has a similar, sobering damage survey

All in all, most people thought that closing many monuments, schools, and parts of the federal government was an over-reaction. That explains the popularity of this "iconic" photo of DC Earthquake Devastation.

More light-hearted mockery may be found in the Time News Feed's Favorite Earthquake Tweets

Bottom line, the earthquake was a wild ride!  We are shaken, but never stirred. And this weekend, we are expecting a hurricane... Hurricane Irene has a posse!  

Move to DC--never a dull moment...