Virgil

It’s kind of rare to have an earthquake on the east coast. I’m sure the Californians or anyone who lives in a major earthquake zone are not going to think much of it. It was a 5.8 magnitude, centered south of Washington D.C., traveled up and down the east coast as south as South Carolina and north as Maine, and you can read about it here: http://news.yahoo.com/quake-rocks-wa...181550612.html.

I was in the middle of an all day meeting of about a dozen engineers (my design team actually) when Mitch interrupted whoever was speaking by blurting out “is that an earthquake? Do you feel that?” To be honest I hadn’t initially felt anything. Then Mitch turns to the window and says, “look the cars are shaking too.” I stood and looked out the window, and then I felt it, but again I didn’t think it was an earthquake. There has been major road work outside our building, and there was this brontosaurus looking contraption of a vehicle, which peels up the street asphalt and with conveyor belt feeds it up into its belly, roaming the streets. My first impulse was it’s the tractor rumbling down the street shaking the building. But then the vibrations went from a tremble to a full swaying of the building, and oh wow!

I have been in two earthquakes in my life, both on the east coast. One was when I was living in Brooklyn and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I felt the tremble. It was noticeable and I knew immediately it was an earthquake. The second time I was on a business trip in Maryland and I think I was still in bed early in the morning, but this was so mild that I found out later that day an earthquake had passed by. Today’s quake was significantly more than either of those. This was an earthquake!

How can I describe it? This was no tremble or vibration, or yes it was a vibration but a vibration with a large amplitude. The walls noticeably swayed, the table rattled, my body shook with the motion, and I instinctively planted my legs apart for stability. At the peak of the motion, I literally saw the other fellows swaying. I was seeing through my eyes as if I were looking at a blurry picture or as if seeing through a rattling motion picture camera. At that point I was convinced it was an earthquake and Mitch again spoke up and said, “this is cool.” My reaction was forget cool, shouldn’t we get under a door jam or under the table? But then it subsided and we were asked to leave the building so it could be inspected. We waited outside for a half hour—luckily it was a nice day—and I tried to call my wife but couldn’t get through. Phone lines were jammed, so I sent her a quick text which went through.

She called later to say she felt nothing, the dog never reacted, and her mother and aunt, also living on Staten Island didn’t feel it. I work over in New Jersey and the whole state seems to have felt it strongly. My mother, also on Staten Island, didn’t feel it either. Seems like Staten Island didn’t get much of a tremor. I wonder if it has to do with being an island, but Manhattan, an island just north of us felt it strongly, and people over in Brooklyn (part of Long Island) felt it too, so I doubt it has to do with being an island.

Apparently some damage was reported up and down the east coast. Those that work in the Manhattan in the skyscrapers were frightened, according to the news article. As we stood outside my building waiting to be let in someone mentioned that we were lucky to be in a one story building. Being at high story floor, say sixty or seventy floors, you would really feel the sway, enough to launch you sideways. Someone then got a text that people in Manhattan were all standing outside their buildings. On such a beautiful late summer day it brought back memories of that September 11th day. But that’s another story with other emotions.