Bay Area Dopers, check in please

[reprise]

and let us know that you're OK following the earthquake.

We already know that SeaDiver and Calzadar are OK, would love to hear from the rest of you.

[Mr. Cynical]

Pezpunk, are you out there? I worry for the Tampa Bay area dopers!

[Incubus]

I'm okay. Almost fell out of my chair, but I'm fine. First thing I did was check to see if my cats were okay. One was barely roused from sleep, the other was spooked and his tail looked like a pipe cleaner. Poor guy...first quake of his life!

[derTintenfisch]

I'm fine - just shaking (never been in one of these before...) Please excuse me while I sit here and twitch for a few mintues:
*twitch*
*twitch*
*twitch*

[Eonwe]

So is there a magnitude reported for this yet? I'm on the East Coast and so didn't feel a thing, but I'm assuming that if this is large enough for Californians to be concerned for ther fellow dopers it must have been kind of large?

[OrganicMatter]

5.2

[Soul Brother Number Two]

im here. its wasnt very big, i dont think.

[Miller]

Okay here. Wasn't too bad. No damage reported. 5.2, near Gilroy. That was a fun one.

I love California!

[Michael Ellis]

I'm fine. It hit right as I finished a paper for a class tomorrow. I prudently hit 'save file'.

[even sven]

Felt it good and clear in Santa Cruz. No damage (not even stuff rolling around) but it did freak me out pretty severely.

I've never felt on before, and I live in a bit of a shack. I ran to a doorway while my San Francisco raised roomate just sat passively in his chair laughing maniacly.

[Eonwe]

Um... so what does a 5.2 mean, let's say at the epicenter? Or maybe 20 miles from it? How much damage or risk is there? (obviously not from earthquake country).

[Demo]

Funny story: I was sitting here reading the board when the following AIM conversation takes place:

obfusciatrist: cool.
Democritus90: what?
obfusciatrist: Did you feel the earthquake up there?
Democritus90: no!
obfusciatrist: Just one good jerk.
Democritus90: did it just happen?
obfusciatrist: Yeah, about 30 seconds ago.
Democritus90: rockin
Democritus90: lol
Democritus90: psy is screamin
Democritus90: 2 seconds after you said that she ran down the stairs
Democritus90: Damn, I always miss them!

[Inky-]

Here and in one piece.

[derTintenfisch]

even sven - mine did the same thing. I'm standing there in my doorway being nervous, and San Francisco boy looks up at me, laughs, and returns to yelling at the game on TV...

[OrganicMatter]

The only thing that came to mind was the first new word I learned after moving to the Bay Area: liquefaction. And then I wondered if I could remember how to operate all the various shutoff valves. And then I settled in to watch the Cheers rerun. I'm home.

[SpoilerVirgin]

After the first jolt, I thought, "hmmmm...earthquake?" When the second hit, I got out of my chair and stood in the doorway. The only damage was the T.V. Guide being knocked off the arm of my chair.

I've been checking out T.V. reports -- it doesn't look like there was any damage anywhere, just a lot of shaken people, especially at the Sharks game.

[Inky-]

Yep Oreganic, that's the proper mindset for true San Fran vet. Some frinds and I once had a conversation about where we all were during the big Loma Prieta quake. Every one of my out-of-state outlander friends knew where they were and what they were doing at the time. I myself could only recall that I was cooking Pasta Roni and was rather proud that I mananaged to finish cooking my dinner with Sterno Tabs -- enjoyed Fettuccine Alfredo with snow peas while I watched the Marina burn. Good times.

[The Bad Astronomer]

Geez, none of the news websites mentions when it was. When was it? I didn't feel it at all in Rohnert Park, 60 miles or so north of SF. I have been told even local quakes are hard to feel in my building, though. In my house, twice, I have felt a 2.2 magnituder centered just 10 miles away.

[reprise]

My geologist friends have asked me to encourage people who either felt the quake or were near the epicentre and didn't feel it to fill in the survey at the "Did you feel it? Tell us" linkhere.

Glad to hear you're all OK

[Troy McClure SF]

I'm good... Lemme call Demo to see if he's OK...
...
...
...
Oh, his phone is off!

[DPWhite]

Everyone in the Bay Area is mostly likely fine, I am. 5.3 in the area is once every couple of years. Due to the building codes here, we are quite safe up to the mid 6 range.

Both my grandmas were in the 06 quake (7.9). One had a the house collapse around the family which was bundled up in a bed. Something of a famous photo resulted. The other had to live in the park for a while.

[reprise]

22:00:29 PDT, 3 miles SW of Gilroy according to the USGS.

[White Lightning]

Yeah, 5.2 is definitely no big deal. And nobody lives up there anyway.

[White Lightning]

Or down there. Whatever.

[Tamerlane]

Kinda fun, really. I like the little ones - It's like the "magic fingers" in a particularly cheap motel.

- Tamerlane

[LolaBaby]

I just heard about it, I hope everyone is alright.

[voguevixen]

Forget me....is the GARLIC ok?!?!?!

(Yeah, not that big a deal where we were, a bit north of SJ...sort of on the "wheeee" level.)

[MovieMogul]

My wife's an earthquake newbie and was lying in bed. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, felt a little bump and didn't give it a second though--that is, not until she came running with this panicked look in her eyes. She was up for the next hour going through the news channels wanting some confirmation that it was serious enough to justify her response. Very cute (although it was hard not to laugh when the various live anchors would say "Well, we didn't feel anything here").

5.2's a decent size; glad to see the injuries and damage were pretty minor compared to the Napa one of the same size a year or two ago (that one really freaked her out; I was in Europe at the time, though I was here for Loma Prieta but she wasn't).

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by voguevixen
Forget me....is the GARLIC ok?!?!?!

I think all the garlic fell off the garlic trees.

[Sassy]

It was a good shake here in the heart of SF - and my building is on bedrock. 5.2 is enough that there may be some small damage near the epicenter, but for most of us it's just the fault lines saying "what's up?"

[Giraffe]

I was at the computer, with my foot on the wall. Soon-to-be Mrs. Giraffe was just sliding the closet door shut when I felt the wall vibrating. My first thought was "Damn! She really slammed that closet door! The whole building is shaking!" Then I realized it was an earthquake, waited a second to see if it was going to get a lot stronger, then went back to what I was doing.

Soon-to-be Mrs. Giraffe ran to the doorway, where she stood looking excited and exclaiming that I should join her there. She's from the Midwest. This same woman watched TV five feet from a sliding glass door throughout my first tornado warning, when a twister was headed right for town. I crouched next to the bathtub and yelled at her.

[Sue Duhnym]

I was at the Sharks game and didn't feel a thing. The paper today said that the scoreboard was swinging and I didn't notice that either.

AFAIK, there was one house fire from a tipped over water heater and that's about it for damage.

[Stuffy]

I'm here too. I felt it, and the boys came running out of their rooms asking if I felt it. The funniest was the wife who freaked (and she's a native Oaklander). Most of my building emptied out. Of course we live on top of the Hayward fault so we feel the smalls one quite easy. We all had a good laugh and were quieted down within 15 minutes.

[islandgirl]

It was a nice 5 seconds or so of shakes.
I was at a friend's house...they were trying to dive under the kitchen table while I finished watching a movie on a TV that was threatening to fall off the entertainment unit.

[Great Dave]

Nice little shaker last night. Figured it was a ways from Alameda due to the time difference between the two waves. I heard the same report as Sue- one house burned due to leaky gas line.

[happyheathen]

Please save the panic for those which register at least 6.5 (roughly 12x a 5.2)

Now to get nailed for:

a) refering to the Richter scale, which EVERYONE knows is horrible obsolete and meaningless

b) Getting the damned logarithm wrong

p.s. the heathen is fine, thank you

[Tars Tarkas]

I'm fine, i thought a fat dude was running on my roof until there was more shaking than Jabba the Hutt could have done. But now i'm an earthquake survivor, where's my T-shirt?

[Jack Batty]

Damn, I miss San Francisco.

I think I give off anti-quake aura or something. I was out there for three years -- nothing. As soon as I move back to Maine - 5.2.

Go figure.

[reprise]

heathen, all the government sites I checked yesterday used the Richter scale (and I was sent to the real time sites by geologists), so it's clearly still in widespread use.

To those of us in non-quake prone countries, 5.2 - while technically "moderate" - has the capacity to inflict substantial damage because our buildings aren't purpose-built to cope with such geological events as they are in SF.

[mlerose]

Was landing in a jet plane at the time...didn't feel it. My roommate, who picked me up, did. She was in Berkeley at a cafe and saw the glass window wobble a bit.

Thanks for your concern, though.

[Sengkelat]

It was a fun quake, nice and long and rolling. Nothing even fell off my kitchen shelves, though, despite the precarious stacking of the tupperware.
The mayor of Gilroy, when asked about the severity of the earthquake, said "The worst thing that happened this evening was that the Sharks lost."

[Nefarious Chipmunk]

Well, I didn't even know there was an earthquake. Go figure. I never feel them. I didn't even feel the one in '89. Sigh.