July 31, 2008
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Our company had planned an earthquake awareness day for today a while back, what perfect timing with the quake yesterday.
It happened while we were at work. You knew who was Californian and who wasn't by their reactions. I just sat at my desk, shifted my eyes around, and waited it out - hoping this wasn't the Big One. My boss did the right thing and took cover under a table. A contractor from India later asked her, "What were you doing?" Hahaha.
My Parents live closer to the heart of the quake. My Mom said that they were fine. However, their bookshelves were about to topple over and my Dad goes over to hold them up. "Only the animals (figurines) on top of the bookshelves fell over."
Oh my goodness, what if it was the Big One? He better not do that next time!
Comments (8)
goodness! glad it wasn't the big one and that you, your family and coworkers were okay.
was the contractor from India video conferencing with your boss at the time?
@SarahakaHungry - no, the contractor was actually in the building with us. he just didn't know that that's what you're supposed to do in an earthquake.
Just to let you know, it is no longer safe to hide under the table, in fact it's quite dangerous. The best thing to do is to stay close to a large desk in a fetal position. They found some years ago during a major earthquake students were told to hide under their desks, most of those students were crushed under the desks, whereas those that did not fared better. I read a whole article on the reasoning why recently, but can't find it now. But it has to do with the fact that you can lay flatter and the objects being crushed can hold up the ceiling a little giving you more movement and space than under a desk.
I was doing the same thing...sat at my desk thinking if nothing fell. We're good. Haha... I do have some supplies of food at my desk, so I guess I'll survive if it was the 'Big One'.
That is what I did. I just stood there and hope it will stop soon, but my coworker took off and ran outside from the studio (since there is no large desk we can hide under) so my boss and I followed her. I guess that is the right thing to do.
I was thinking what should I do if the big one really comes. hide under the desk, ran outside or stay in the corner? My husband said kind of morbid thing "it does not matter what you do or where you go when it is time for you to get crushed, you will get crushed". Hmm, I guess there are some truth in it.
with enough momentum (?), bookshelves that wanna fall over, WILL fall over! how dangerous. we need to secure those shelves to the wall!
glad to hear that you're ok!
yeah that was crazy! i was in clinic and people were totally stressed afterwards cuz none of the phones or cell phone would work, and everyone was worried about their family members. me? i was like, uh, can i get back to my patient and writing my note? it didn't occur to me until later that i should have checked on Chris. i suppose i'm californian enough think if nothing happened to me, it probably didn't happen to him either.