Friday, January 18, 2008
Days of the minor earthquakes.
Days of the earthquakes.
I was talking to a friend the other day and the topic of earthquakes came up. She said there was one time when the dishes in her kitchen cupboard were suddenly rattling. Until she read in her local newspaper , she didn`t realize it had been an earthquake causing the dishes to rattle.
I told her about the two earthquakes that hit our locality . The first one just shook our home, but it also destroted some camps where people lived near the river. That was about 2- miles from our home.
But the last one was about 6 or 7 years ago. That time I had gone to bed and was sitting up in bed watching some TV. My husband was sitting on the couch in the front room watchint another movie. Suddenly the house started shaking and then just as quickly my bed started moving back and forth across my bedroom. I am sure glad there wasn`t a very large space for the bed to move back and forth in. Every time the bed hit against the wall at the top of the bed, it jarred my head so it slammed against the wall. My head was hitting over and over every time the bed moved back and forth. It was happening so fast that it didn`t give me even a couple seconds to protect my head in. After a lot of head whacks I finally had the strength to put my head down towards my chest and I held it there so it stopped connecting to the wall. The house seemed to be shaking sideways while the bed was moving back and forth in the opposite direction . That made it hard to control your own body against such a strong force. While this was going on, things were falling off both dressers and landing around the room. It seemed like it was lasting for a very long time, bvut it probably was only a few minutes at the most.
When things finally calmed down and everything was again silent, my husband yelled in to me asking me What was that ? I told him it must have been an earthquake. I put on the radio on our local station and yes it was an earthquake. I forgot what number they gave it. I waited for hours before going outside to see if we had any real damage anywhere. I had read once that there is often aftershakes shortly after the first quake and i didn`t want to chance being outside if it happened this time.
What I discovered was a broken window in my shop. Then I opened the garage which connects to one side of my shop. There I saw my thick cement garage floor cracked . The crack had started in one place and went off into three different directions. On one side of the cracks the ground under the cement had lowered below the other side. I covered the broken window with cardboard that night and the next morning I replaced the broken window. Luckily we had another window almost the same size in our cellar. But the garage floor was never repaired. Today I wish we had turned the damages into our Property Insurance and had it repaired. But we didn`t and now about 6 or 7 years later the cracks have grown even longer and wider- leaving almost an inch space in some places. The hardest part now is making sure I don`t drive my car in and stop it so the tires would rest half on and half off one of the cracks. Seeing how the ground has lowered near some cracks leaves me wondering if repairing it back then would have been worth while. Maybe the ground would still have loweredand just caused more cracks to appear on the new cement.
After that last earthquake they said there was a big fault underground, not only in our area, but also in the neighboring city which is only about 3 miles from where I live. So, I am hoping those faults underground never again cause us more earthquakes in the future.
We were lucky that there wasn`t worse damage. Leaves me feeling more for those who have gone thru worse earthquakes, tornados and other such damaging storms. God Bless those who have lost everything from a horrid storm and those who have lost loved ones due to these storms. It reminds me of how lucky we were back then.
I was talking to a friend the other day and the topic of earthquakes came up. She said there was one time when the dishes in her kitchen cupboard were suddenly rattling. Until she read in her local newspaper , she didn`t realize it had been an earthquake causing the dishes to rattle.
I told her about the two earthquakes that hit our locality . The first one just shook our home, but it also destroted some camps where people lived near the river. That was about 2- miles from our home.
But the last one was about 6 or 7 years ago. That time I had gone to bed and was sitting up in bed watching some TV. My husband was sitting on the couch in the front room watchint another movie. Suddenly the house started shaking and then just as quickly my bed started moving back and forth across my bedroom. I am sure glad there wasn`t a very large space for the bed to move back and forth in. Every time the bed hit against the wall at the top of the bed, it jarred my head so it slammed against the wall. My head was hitting over and over every time the bed moved back and forth. It was happening so fast that it didn`t give me even a couple seconds to protect my head in. After a lot of head whacks I finally had the strength to put my head down towards my chest and I held it there so it stopped connecting to the wall. The house seemed to be shaking sideways while the bed was moving back and forth in the opposite direction . That made it hard to control your own body against such a strong force. While this was going on, things were falling off both dressers and landing around the room. It seemed like it was lasting for a very long time, bvut it probably was only a few minutes at the most.
When things finally calmed down and everything was again silent, my husband yelled in to me asking me What was that ? I told him it must have been an earthquake. I put on the radio on our local station and yes it was an earthquake. I forgot what number they gave it. I waited for hours before going outside to see if we had any real damage anywhere. I had read once that there is often aftershakes shortly after the first quake and i didn`t want to chance being outside if it happened this time.
What I discovered was a broken window in my shop. Then I opened the garage which connects to one side of my shop. There I saw my thick cement garage floor cracked . The crack had started in one place and went off into three different directions. On one side of the cracks the ground under the cement had lowered below the other side. I covered the broken window with cardboard that night and the next morning I replaced the broken window. Luckily we had another window almost the same size in our cellar. But the garage floor was never repaired. Today I wish we had turned the damages into our Property Insurance and had it repaired. But we didn`t and now about 6 or 7 years later the cracks have grown even longer and wider- leaving almost an inch space in some places. The hardest part now is making sure I don`t drive my car in and stop it so the tires would rest half on and half off one of the cracks. Seeing how the ground has lowered near some cracks leaves me wondering if repairing it back then would have been worth while. Maybe the ground would still have loweredand just caused more cracks to appear on the new cement.
After that last earthquake they said there was a big fault underground, not only in our area, but also in the neighboring city which is only about 3 miles from where I live. So, I am hoping those faults underground never again cause us more earthquakes in the future.
We were lucky that there wasn`t worse damage. Leaves me feeling more for those who have gone thru worse earthquakes, tornados and other such damaging storms. God Bless those who have lost everything from a horrid storm and those who have lost loved ones due to these storms. It reminds me of how lucky we were back then.
# posted by Dotm @ 1/18/2008 03:46:00 PM 
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Must have been very scary. We live in an area which is not supposed to be earthquake prone, But we had a small shake here around maybe 6 or 7 years back and the cement of our front porch cracked and there was a small crack at the wall at the corner of our house.
Hi Hillgrandmom,
I had forgotten about the cracks in the cement between some blocks in our cellar wall that we had to patch. You could follow the line the quake must have happened by where the damage was left behind- from where the cracks were in the celllar wall, to the broken window and on thru the garage floor. On a slant as it went across our property. I never thought of it until now. Maybe that earthquake bothered the well since it is located in the corner of the cellar under our bedroom. Suddenly the water started having rust in it and wasn`t drinkable. We finally pulled up all the pipes and point and drove down new ones a couple years later. Maybe it shook the rust off the top of the point that wasn`t burried under water. I had wondered why the water suddenly changed it`s taste back then. Suddenly there was rust in the water. Funny I never connected it with the earthquake before. It had been good drinking water since 1956. It also might have widened the washed out water basin area where the water settles, made the water line different and made the point higher out of the water so it collected rust faster.
I had forgotten about the cracks in the cement between some blocks in our cellar wall that we had to patch. You could follow the line the quake must have happened by where the damage was left behind- from where the cracks were in the celllar wall, to the broken window and on thru the garage floor. On a slant as it went across our property. I never thought of it until now. Maybe that earthquake bothered the well since it is located in the corner of the cellar under our bedroom. Suddenly the water started having rust in it and wasn`t drinkable. We finally pulled up all the pipes and point and drove down new ones a couple years later. Maybe it shook the rust off the top of the point that wasn`t burried under water. I had wondered why the water suddenly changed it`s taste back then. Suddenly there was rust in the water. Funny I never connected it with the earthquake before. It had been good drinking water since 1956. It also might have widened the washed out water basin area where the water settles, made the water line different and made the point higher out of the water so it collected rust faster.
That experience you had on your bed sounds absolutely terrifying Dot. Let's hope it never happens again.
Mother nature can sure packa wallop when she wants to.
I have felt two earthquacks while living here but because we live on bedrock we aren;t in danger but because we do live on solid ground when we do get shaken up if feels alot worse than it is.
I have felt two earthquacks while living here but because we live on bedrock we aren;t in danger but because we do live on solid ground when we do get shaken up if feels alot worse than it is.
Gypsy, It probably would have been scarry if I had time to think while it was happening, but it was banging my head so fast, all I could think about was finding the strength to bend my head forward so it wouldn`t keep hitting the wall. I also hope we never have any more. I wish there were no more bad storms anyplace in the world.
Oh, Walker I hope the future earthquakes can never cause any breakage or cracks in the bedrock. Mother Nature sure has a mind of her own. There is always some damage she is causing some place in the world. Always someplace where people are suffering from some bad storm. My heart goes out to those going thru more than any person should be asked to handle.
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