Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Shake, Rattle and Roll...

A few minutes before 2pm this afternoon an earthquake reported first as 5.8 and then at 5.9 (the USGS site is now showing 5.8 again, but we'll see what we'll finally get) hit Mineral VA, about 80 miles southwest of my location.

I was in the shower. No kidding. The best way I can describe it is that the bathtub vibrated and became almost liquid. At the same time it sounded like somebody had grabbed the entire wall between my apartment and the corridor and was trying to shake it open. With undertones of jackhammer.

The epicenter was in a mildly active area that occasionally gets a magnitude 4, but this is a very unusual event. There is some minor cosmetic damage to my bath tub, but I have electricity, gas and telecommunications and the building itself seems to be undamaged.

It says something about my priorities that I hit the manual backup button to send all of my writing to my offside backup before leaving the building...doesn't it. Ahem.

In any case, no real significant damage done. Except a little bit to my nerves.

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