An earthquake poll

In My Humble Opinion
21

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?

I’ve lived in SoCal most of my life, so yes. I didn’t feel today’s quake at all, but I was in the car when it happened. Otherwise I’ve experienced all of the quakes since 1982, and those between 1955-76.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.

The Landers Quake/Big Bear Quake. I was a lot closer to it than the OP was. I woke up, realized what was happening and started listening to things fall in the house. No major damage, but the quake emptied a number of bookcases. If nothing is breaking I think earthquakes are kinda fun.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?

Fear, no. Anticipate and plan for, yes.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?

Hell, yes. The major one at home, with satellite kits in the classroom and in the truck.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

I’ve spent too many summers on the farm in Kansas to not be terrified of tornadoes. My deal with God is that I put up with earthquakes, smog and traffic. In return I get 350 sunny days a year, the best-looking women on the planet to look at, and NO FUCKING TORNADOES!!! :smiley:

22

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Not that I know of, although I’ve been ‘in the area’ of a couple.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
I think I was alseep!

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
Not at all. But, then again, I like fast roller coasters, riding a motorbike, flying and eating from burger vans.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
Isn’t that mainly common sense and water?

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
I’ve been in a couple of hurricanes (not life-threatening, to me at least) and they’re a pain to clear up after. I guess that’s the same with tornados, depending on the strength. Earthquakes register barely a ‘meh’ in me if all that’s happened is some crockery got broken and no-one died. I more fear living somewhere where the humans will get ya :eek: .

23

  1. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
    I guess. We have them, but people usually don’t notice them. The most recent one was within the last year or two.

  2. If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
    They barely register. The one Shagnasty mentioned is one of the bigger ones. The east coast is decades over due for a real one, so we’re bound to have a good shaker sooner or later. Thus far having an earthquake is very little different from having the jets come in too low on their way to the airport, or having a large noisy truck pass by on the highway. No one thinks “earthquake!” until the news confirms that’s what it was.

  3. Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
    Nope. Not yet, anyway.

  4. If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
    n/a

  5. If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
    I’d avoid those tornadoes. Hurricanes aren’t awful if you’re inland (though I’m scared of the wind), and bad earthquakes seem a lot more rare than tornadoes too.

24

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Born and raised in So Cal, so yes, I’ve had my share. I didn’t really feel the earthquake this morning so much as hear it.
**
2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.**
Well, the largest that I was closest to was the 5.9 Whittier quake in 1987. I was about 10 miles from the epicenter, and as I was running to get into a doorway, part of our piano fell right behind me. In retrospect, the worst I would have come out of that with was a bruise, but it freaked me out pretty good, and I’ve hated earthquakes ever since. I also remember the Landers, Big Bear, and Northridge quakes pretty vividly.

Actually, the Northridge one was interesting because it woke me up, and none of the rest of my family would believe that it was actually an earthquake. I ended up sitting wrapped up in a blanket in the living room watching the TV and planning all the different ways I could say, “I told you so.”

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
Ugh, yes. I hate that they’re utterly unpredictable. Also, the sound is just so very disturbing. You have the windows rattling, the house shaking, everything moving, that oh-my-god-a-freight-train-is-coming-through-the-house sound, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Creepy!

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
I’m married to Asimovian, so just take his answer. Apparently I’m afraid of earthquakes, but not afraid enough to put together a preparedness kit. Lots of bottled water in our house at any time, though, and to my mind, that’s the most important thing (along with knowing how to turn off your gas valve). I think putting together a preparedness kit acknowledges the fact that a big earthquake might actually happen, and my lizard brain is not ready to acknowledge that little bit of creepy information.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
I have been in a town when a tornado happened and that was pretty creepy. I liked the advance notice, but the amount of damage is astounding (and it was only a small tornado!). I think I’d prefer hurricanes or earthquakes.

25

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
Several times in the ten years I have lived here.

The tiny effect of the one from a couple of hours ago.

In 1999-2000, one afternoon, I felt what seemed like a truck hitting my apartment building, but then the whole room started to wobble back and forth.

In 2001, at about 5PM on a Sunday afternoon, I was working at the California Science Center, when there was the sensation of a pulse going through the building, and the suspended, 5,000-lb. Hoberman Hypar began to rattle menacingly over our heads. Eek.

Turned out to be not as strong an earthquake as it seemed, due to the shallow depth of the center. A lot of people felt it rather hard, but there was a very small amount of serious damage. the news was hungry for footage, so the next day, all channels were showing the one house in the Hollywood Hills or somewhere whose corner had collapsed. Man, I thought, there must be nothing to report on. That was Monday, September 10.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.

The 1999 Hector Mines earthquake. My wife woke me up screaming to head for the doorway. Once I got there, I felt the whole room undulating rather sickeningly for many seconds, but there were no sharp shocks. We turned the radio on to hear news as we fell back to sleep. Surf guitar legend Dick Dale apparently owns a farm very close to the epicenter, so they were interviewing him.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
Somewhat, yes. A geologist gave a talk at the above-mentioned job once, and HE says he holds his breath every time he drives under an underpass. He once had a chance at a professional conference to speak with an LA area roadway engineer, the one who had been given the task of designing some major interchanges, and asked him, “How did you manage to get the ramp from the 110 South to the 105 East to be quake-safe?” The response? “It isn’t.” They had given him the parameters, and there was nowhere to go but up.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
Not coordinated as such, but we have first aid kits, bottled water and an information packet that is kept in a hand location.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

I want nothing to do with tornadoes. I lived in Massachusetts, where we got the occasional hurricane remnants (Long Island and Connecticut usually did us the favor of dissipating most of the energy), so I’ve found that livable, but I wouldn’t live in the Gulf Coast area.

26

I was wondering why I didn’t remember this one, until you mentioned the date.

27

October 17, 1989. Downtown San Francisco.

I thought it was FUN. (A few hours later, I realized that my house might have fallen/burned down, which upset me a little. Anyway, that didn’t happen, as it turned out.) Really! The coolest roller coaster ever! For those who feel differently (scared), I’m not sorry. Somewhere in what passes for my archives, I have photos taken by a coworker right after, and a long letter I wrote and photocopied to send to all my friends…e-mail was not real common back then.
What was it like? Ummm…it a real cameraderie inducer, I’ll tell ya. Everyone was nice to one another, for a short while. There was a storeowner giving away ice cream, on the theory that it would just melt anyway.

Tornadoes can be scary. They’re like giant powerdrills, and they can chase you if they want. Hurricanes- yipe. Combo tornado and flood.

I’ve been trained for natural disasters since early childhood, so I don’t worry about them; my responses are pretty reflexive.

Yes, I have an emergency kit- water, batteries, candles, all-band radio, etc. Extra cigarettes. Just normal planning ahead. This came in real handy last summer, when windstorms knocked the power out for a week. :cool:

I wish you the best in your disaster experiences. Gaia can play rough.

28

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Yep, sure have. It’s been a while, but I was not too far from the epicenter of the Northridge quake in '94. And there were months of aftershocks, of course.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
Having heard estimates for Northridge from 6.5 to 6.8, I usually just call it 6.7. Big, anyway. It was very dark and very loud and very scary. If it had been during the day it would have been scary as hell, but at some unknown time during the night (4:31 AM, I found out later) it was even scarier than hell.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
Yes, but not to the point I wouldn’t live in earthquake territory again.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
If I ever do again – and I want to move to the Pacific Northwest someday – then I damn well will.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
You left out wildfire-prone areas. Google “Castle Rock Fire” and you can see what I’ve been living with for the last couple of weeks. But given the choice of the three you give? I’d take earthquakes. Scary, yes, but you don’t dread seeing it coming either, either for minutes or in the case of a hurricane, days.

29

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Yes a few. I usually sleep through them, but I was awake for one a few years ago.

**2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
**3.7. I was playing Everquest and my chair started swaying. I immediately logged off so I could put my info on the USGS earthquake map.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
Not especially. I might be if I had been here during Northridge. I live near the junction of two major faults but I just can’t get worked up about it. I prepare for it but I don’t spend everyday worrying about it.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
Yes.
**
5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?**
Earthquakes are preferable to me, although we get atmospheric phenomena like tornadoes too. In fact, Rosamond had one yesterday. While phenomena of this nature are not rare, they aren’t common either and as such people don’t prepare for them or know how to deal with them here (usually we just get sandstorms and dust devils).

I much prefer earthquakes. I am less afraid of the familiar, I guess.

30

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?

Yes, the one a couple of weeks ago.
**
2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.**

Loma Prieta, 1989. We weren’t too far from the epicenter, but were on bedrock, so while the shaking was quite violent and the trees looked like they were in a hurricane, (seeing redwoods snapping back and forth like grass in the wind is frankly terrifying) we didn’t lose anything. Friends and family weren’t so lucky. It felt and sounded like the world’s biggest freight train. First, there was a little jolt and I thought, oh, earthquake. And then I *heard *it, and the shaking got stronger and stronger and that’s when I knew it was a big one. While I haven’t been in a tornado, I’ve heard recordings, and the sound of a tornado passing overhead is remarkably similar to what the Loma Prieta quake sounded like where I was. Afterwards, there was a huge dust cloud a couple of hundred feet high that rolled down the canyon and then it was totally, completely silent. I have never felt so small as I did in that moment of perfect silence, as if the earth had stood still. And then my family all rushed together to make sure we were all OK, and time started again.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?

No, not really, although every time I feel one start, I have a brief flash of fear that this is going to be the Big One. But I don’t worry about it the rest of the time. I’ve also been blessed with a 2 second warning system, in that I know one’s coming about 2 seconds before it hits. I have just enough time to think “Earthquake’s coming” before one hits, so they’re not a complete surprise. I knew the Loma Prieta was coming the night before, though, so who knows? (One of the reasons we didn’t lose anything then was because I got up in the middle of the night before to put the breakables away.)

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?

Yes.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

Earthquakes. I’d rather not see it coming, thanks.

31

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?

Yes, most recently the 1994 Northridge quake

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.

'94 Northridge again. We were living in Glendale, having moved out of Northridge a couple months before the quake hit. I woke up when my husband grabbed me, hauled me half out of bed, and threw his body over mine. What with being a relative newlywed, that and the bed shaking were still a pretty normal, every night experience so it took me a while to realize there was an earthquake going on. We had a lot of stuff fall off the walls, and would probably have lost our dishes if the kitchen cabinets hadn’t been so old and stuck shut.

After the initial quake, my cat jumped back up on the bed and went to sleep, so I figured it was okay to do the same. I thought at the time it was no bigger than the Whittier Narrows of the mid-eighties and was rather annoyed at having bee awakened at all. I changed my mind in the morning when all the news about the freeway damage and downed buildings came in. We were pretty lucky - people all around us had chimnies down, windows shattered, walls cracked, lots of breakage. Our little old apartment over a garage had ridden it like a surfboard and come up unscathed.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?

Nah, I grew up in SoCal - they were just one of those things, although there was always a lot of talk about “the big one” due any day.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?

We did when we lived there. Small ones in the car trunks, larger one in the house. The water came in handy for other small disasters, like water contamination problems in the Ventura County supplies during the El Ninos in the '90s

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

I live in tornado country now and they don’t bother me any more than earthquakes do. It’s always something. I’d probably try to avoid living in a hurricane zone, but mostly because I don’t like tropical weather.

32

  1. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience? Yes, many. I used to live on top of Kilauea. The most recent was last October.

  2. If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience. 7.2 but I was too young to remember it. I remember the 6.9 when I was three but only as things falling off the wall. As an adult the biggest was last October’s 6.7. We’re far away so things shook a little. We lost power for most of the day but most stores near me were open and selling things to a few people at a time. The restaurants in China Town were open and serving food.

  3. Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes? No.

  4. If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit? I live in Zone 2A. Basically all we’ll feel on Oahu are the earthquakes from the big island which are greatly weakened by distance. I have no kit.

  5. If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why? Earthquakes. I just feel like their safer and easier to build for.

33

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Yes. Please see the first link in the OP.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
The largest magnitude would be the 1992 Landers quake at 7.3 on the Richter scale, which woke me up in Orange County but IIRC didn’t do any damage here. If you prefer “What was the most shaking you felt?”, i.e. the intensity, that would be the 6.7 Northridge quake of 1994. That made my building (the same one as in 1992) sway like it was on springs.

Despite all the earthquakes I’ve experienced here in SoCal I’ve never suffered any significant damage. I have been very lucky.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
I dread the aftermath of a really big one, but I don’t fear the quakes themselves. Once I’m assured that nothing’s going to fall on me, I enjoy the motion and when it’s over I want to do it again. As one of my long-ago Geology intructors put it, “Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings kill people.”

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
Yes, but my mother gave it to me so I deserve no credit for foresight. The most elaborate item in the kit is a hand-cranked radio. There’s also duct tape, hand sanitizer, water purifier tablets, and a can opener, but no food or water. I should be adding those plus one- and five-dollar bills. Eventually. :smack:

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
I’ll stick to earthquake country, thanks. If I’m going to be standing on the street at two in the morning wearing nothing but pajamas, better that it’s never below freezing. :smiley:

Although I had nightmares about tornados as a kid, nowadays I thrill to stormchaser footage of twisters, and I’d love to see one in the wild. Nevertheless I don’t want to live in tornado country.

Hurricanes don’t provoke the visceral response in me that tornados do, but since their destructive results affect such a large area I’m leery of the economic aftermath - with so many people hurting, who’s going to notice me?

I do realize that neither position is particulary defensible. I guess it comes down to “the devil you know”.

34

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Many. Maybe a month or so ago

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.

An 8.0 quake in 1995 that lasted for over a minute and a half. It was truly a nightmare. Kids in 2 different schools, wife at parents house and me in another location. It was several hours before I was able to locate my daughter. Our home was classified a complete loss by the authorities. Structurally unsound and beyond repair.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?

Yes

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?

I never leave my car keys or cel phone out of reach. I leave my pants next to the bed at night so I can quickly grab them on the way out of the house. I keep some things in my vehicle at all times.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

I live in a zone that has quakes and hurricanes. We don’t have tornados. Of all of the above natural disasters I think hurricanes, because of advance warning, are the least worrisome.

35
  1. Yes. Most recent? Small quakes happen all the time in the Bay Area; I suppose the last one I felt would have been in the last couple of weeks.

2)Loma Prieta '89. I was heading over to a friend’s house to watch the Series. Sitting at a stoplight, my truck started to shudder, and I thought I had some kind of major engine problem. But engine problems don’t make telephone poles sway back and forth. I hightailed it over to my friend’s house. Once we made sure everyone was okay, we started in on the beer and snacks.

3)Nope.

4)I’ve got some supplies in the back of the truck, but it’s parked in a carport that would likely collapse in a really big quake. If I was away from home, I’d be set for at least a couple of days.

5)Earthquake Country*. I’ve lived in California most of my life, it’s always just gone with the territory.

*useless trivia/musical plug: a friend of mine plays in a bluegrass band called Earthquake Country–they’re playing next weekend at the Brown Barn Bluegrass Festival

36

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience? When I was a small child (circa 1966), someone got the bright idea to pump wastewater into a small fault line in the general vicinity of Denver, Colorado, resulting in lots of little quakes. I vaguely remember Mom being scared and mentioning earthquakes.

The most recent was July 26th (27??) 2005, in Twin Bridges MT. It was a small (5.5ish, IIRC) quake, but I could hear the sumbitch coming. A low growl, almost like a strained diesel engine, for a couple seconds, and then a sudden sharp jolt immediately followed by the house quivering for what seemed like several minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. For a brief moment, I thought a semitruck had crashed into my house. I then wasted a LONG time marveling at the fact that it was an earthquake, and that I was a dumbass for automatically assuming a truck could jump the river (and two other houses) to crash into mine, and pondering the wisdom of getting up to go stand in the door frame or sit in the bathtub or something, while watching an ugly vase dance off of the table top. I wasn’t ever scared, but in retrospect, that was not a pleasant noise. The cats slept through it. Stupid cats.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience. see above. That house is on bad subsoil for earthquakes, so it felt bit stronger than it should have, and there was a bit more damage in certain area than would be expected on more stable soil.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes? Not particularly. I probably should, since I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do in case of a messy one, and I do things like laugh at people who are afraid of Yellowstone asploding, and moving to California.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit? Nope. Or rather, yes, but it’s not designed for natural disasters of any kind. It’s the “oh, shit FIRE!!! box”, containing stuff to get me, hubby & the cats through the Insurance Company BS. A little tote bag containing copies of credit cards, prescriptions & insurance policy numbers, my pearls, extra keys, an extra cellphone charger, book of checks, phone number list, sitting on the cat carrier, next to hubby’s laptop, under my purse. No water or first-aid kit or anything.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

Well, none of the above, of course, except earthquakes can happen any time any place, so they can’t be avoided entirely. I consider Tornado Alley a very large “iffy part of town” and would generally prefer to avoid after dark, but don’t freak out about it when I am. Hurricanes, however, scare the peewadden outta me, and there ain’t 'nuff money in the world to get me to move anywhere near where one might be merely unusual. I’m a little twitchy about flooding in general, but wide scale flooding with wind and waves and general chaos for a long time is doubleplus very not good.

37

1) Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
Yes, sometime back in the late 80s.

2) If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
I seem to remember — and I don’t do that too well anymore — that it was in the 4s. I was sitting in an easy chair. It felt like one of those vibrating beds for a few seconds. No damage, no danger.

3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
No.

4) If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
No. I should have something, though. If the New Madrid fault (I live in Missouri) should ever go in my lifetime, it will probably be quite damaging. And having had two power outages last year (St. Louis area dopers will know what I’m talking about), you’d think I’d have something.

5) If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
Any one of those can cause a great deal of damage, obviously, but where would I live if I wanted to avoid all natural disasters? I live in an area that could have a major earthquake and always has some tornado problems. I’m way too far inland for hurricanes, but flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers (it’s always both) can be damaging.

38

My father was born and raised in Hollywood, California, and earthquakes are why he left.

I’ve not experienced one that I could feel. Thailand’s North gets quite a few, centered mainly in Burma, and one time I was on an overnight bus to the North when I lived up there and read the next day that one could be felt right about where my bus was at the time. Of course, bouncing along in a Thai bus, you wouldn’t be able to feel anything like that. Bangkok is rarely touched by then, but occasionally there will be some sort of shock far away that’s strong enough to make the taller buildings sway JUST a bit, but I’ve never felt that. The last one here that everyone felt was 1975. My wife remembers that one; very gentle but caused a lot of panic, because no one had felt one before.

The big 9.0 one off of Sumatra that resulted in the Boxing Day tsunami on December 26, 2004, made our windows buzz, but we did not feel anything. People in elevators in our condo building, thoughm, said the elevator cars swayed.

I’ve experienced one tornado and one hurrican, though. Of those, I’d take the hurricane, assuming I was in something sturdy.

39
  1. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?

Whittier CA Earthquake 10/01/1987

Painesville OH quake of June, 2006

  1. If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.

The Whittier quake was kind of scary. I was at work in L.A., having been sent on a job from my company in Cleveland. There were “only” 2 deaths.
3) Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?

No.

  1. If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?

No.

  1. If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?

I’d avoid hurricanes.

40

  1. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? When was your most recent experience?
    Yes. Circa 1984, one and only experience. Eastern Queens, NY

  2. If so, what’s the largest magnitude quake you’ve ever felt? Describe your experience.
    Don’t know the Richter. I was dead-to-the-world asleep when it hit; rather than totally 100% waking me up, I sort of did a waking-dream number on the rumbling and shaking and angrily rolled over cursing whatever staff member had chosen the dead of night to roll a huge heavy 200-ton cart around on the floor upstairs. Woke up more fully a few minutes’ later, realizing that made no damn sense, and realizing I had no idea what had happened, walked out into the hallway. Got the info from staff that it had been a minor earthquake

  3. Regardless of whether you’ve experienced one or not, do you fear earthquakes?
    No

  4. If you live in earthquake territory, do you have a preparedness kit?
    n/a

  5. If you have a choice between living in an earthquake-prone area or a tornado or hurricane prone area, which would you choose/avoid, and why?
    I do not care for tornados. I would avoid those. I’ve done hurricanes several times. They don’t faze me none.