Earthquake!
 

So... at about 12:35am MST (approx 50 minutes ago from when I'm typing this), my third floor apartment, and the whole building really, began to shake. Things were rattling, the cats were scared shitless, a few things fell onto the floor, and after standing in shock for a few seconds, I scurried for the nearest door frame because all I could think was "you're supposed to stand in a door frame, right?".
It was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake about 90-95 miles away from me.
It took at least 5 minutes for me to realize what had happened. Another probably close to 10 for me to fall apart and start to pull myself together. About the time I was ready to find the cats, the first aftershock hit. I sat in the door frame again and focused on breathing. Batty was hiding under my bed, looking scared, but otherwise okay. Shade was nowhere to be found. But after searching, he was found hiding behind the toilet. A third aftershock hit. Much smaller, but still unnerving.
I am now wide awake and trying not to freak out. I know it's probably over and I know that compared to California, it's a pretty small quakes. But we don't get them here very often. In fact, this is the only one I've ever felt.

Anyone else been through an earthquake? Are they frequent where you live?
Any advice for a freaked out person who's been through their first quake?

Update: 1:30am MST I am still sitting in the door frame and have just felt a third aftershock.

We've had small quakes here... it has been said while I was in elementary school that we're due for a big one soon... I have graduated high school and it has not happened. One night, my parents woke me up because of an earthquake... I felt nothing.

I heard that you're not supposed to stand in front of a door or a doorway... that was back in elementary school as well.

I'm glad you and your kitties are safe, though.

I think the whole standing in (like actually in the door frame not in front of it) a doorframe thing is because it's generally more structurally sound than other parts of the house? At least I think that's what I was taught.

We're all pretty freaked still. The aftershocks aren't helping with that. I keep just trying to focus on them though.

Actually, that only applies to older masonry-style buildings. In modern buildings, your best bet is to take shelter under sturdy furniture that isn't likely to shift too much during the shaking.

My apartment building is pretty old actually...

It applies more to buildings built before 1920, I think. I'd have to watch the Mythbusters episode again.

ETA: Found the video of the episode

My phone doesn't have any high-speed data so I can't watch that video. I'm trying to look up info on the building, but it's hard to find.
I'm sure the interior is probably more modern than the exterior, but it is in the area of town with a lot of the historic buildings, so at least the exterior is probably from around the 1920s.

I mean, I'm not saying I made the safest choice, but based on faulty (ah earthquake pun!) information given to me in probably 5th grade at the latest, I did what I thought was best.
Also...I don't really have much in the way of sturdy furniture that I can fit under.

At least you did your best to be safe, and it was successful. Last September, my area actually got hit with an earthquake that had its epicenter in Oklahoma... the shaking went from there all the way to North Dakota. And I swore I was imagining things, until I went downstairs later that morning and Mom asked me if I'd felt the earthquake.

Ah yeah, that's a pretty big shake. O.o
Supposedly this one was felt as far out as Seattle, but I can't confirm that yet.

I was always taught to get under a table or Desk. o3o

I've been through one tiny earthquake so far. Back in 2006, I was in North Carolina and the couch i was laying on started to shake. I thought it was my Boyfriend bouncing his leg on this part of his computer desk (which the couch was behind) and that causes the couch to shake.. NOPE! turned out to be a small earthquake. =w=

Everyone around me was all "Did you feel that earthquake last night!? JESS THAT WAS YOUR FIRST ONE RIGHT?!" they were all excited. More excited then I was. x'D

Despite living in California for four years, I only ever felt little wiggles of earthquakes, never anything big enough to be worrying.

I never heard anyone get excited over someone else's first earthquake before.

My wife and I got excited over our first earthquake. When it's not severe enough to be scary, the novelty of it can have an effect.

Hmm... thinking about it, I can see why some people would be thrilled to have an earthquake.

-rolls around laughing-

Really? There was one like...a decade ago maybe? It was pretty big, enough to rattle Mom's china cabinet a bit, and make the dining table lamp swing. There was also one maybe six years ago -- I was sitting in class, and heard this really loud bang and a bit of a jolt. That one was 5-something, I think.

Though, eleven years ago, there were worries about the hundreth anniversary of the big 1906 SF quake. TBH, the main cause of destruction from that particular earthquake was the fires that broke out, not the quake itself.

... did I really write four years? I meant five, I lived there five years, I moved there in summer of 2012...

I felt the 5.1 earthquake in La Habra in 2014, but all the way up in Pasadena it was just a little bit of a wiggle that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been lying on my stomach on the floor at the time.

I heard there was a bit of damage and a power outage for the town that the quake was centered near. Other than my cats still being on edge, I don't think there was any damage where I'm at. It was definitely unmistakable as a quake though.

One of my friends was pretty excited because he loves natural disaster type stuff.
And in retrospect, it was kind of neat. Scary as all hell because my mind immediately jumped to "the building's gping to collapse", but kind of neat.

Yeah, the 9/3/2016 quake, where I am, was enough to shake my bed, and stop the grandfather clock on the main floor. Reason I thought I had imagined it was because anxiety tends to make my legs shake if I'm in bed and it's acting up badly (last time it happened was due to a medication reaction) enough that I shake the bed. It wasn't really scary or anything, and the cause of it was fracking-related.

Ah, I can see how the bed-shaking wouldn't really bother you in that case.

Yeah. I thought to check the clock after the shaking stopped, but then I fell back asleep, came down a few hours later, and that's when I found out I hadn't been imagining things.

I've been through a couple little ones. Since I grew up on the Pacific coast I've had earthquake procedures drilled into my head since kindergarden.

The reason for not standing in a door frame is the potential for being injured by the swinging door, since it can move. Standard drill procedure was to take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture, use one hand to hold onto it by a leg or something (because they can move), and put your other arm behind your head over your neck. When the shaking stops, count at least one minute (maybe two) to see if there are any aftershocks following. Then bolt for a big open space. Keep shoes by your bed for that purpose.

I haven't encountered anything more than rumbling and shaking furniture, myself. When I was living towards the interior, we had one quake that felt like a giant had punched the house, just one big *THUD* and my stepsister yelling WHAT THE %@*# WAS THAT!?" Apparently those were from the oil and gas activity in the area. Take enough stuff out of the ground and the gaps left behind would occasionally collapse as the Earth settled again.

But uh...my one doorframe doesn't have a door... >.>
This was our first "big" aka:one we could feel quake in the area in 12 years, so the whole keeping shoes by the bed thing generally isn't something anyone even thinks about.

Oh wow....yeah, the idea of earth caving in isn't pleasant. Bet it can make some decent quakes. O.o

As mentioned earlier, the door frame thing is obsolete advice. It was valid for houses built before modern building codes because door frames were reinforced by virtue of having to have a door put into them. Anything built since, like, the 1960s is constructed in a more earthquake-resistant fashion, and you're in more danger from stuff on the walls falling down (or from YOU falling down) than you are from the walls themselves falling down, so you're better off taking cover under a heavy piece of furniture that will block the debris.

Though, the door frame thing /does/ lead to silly (in retrospect) stories, like my high school physics teacher (then in college) huddling in the door frame with his ass-naked roommate during the Northridge earthquake, which, incidentally, was five days after I was born :|

I (not sure what to do) would probably put a pillow over my head to stop head injuries and get in a fetal position in a hall or somewhere away from things above me


I've only had one I've went through in Texas and it was tiny and I literally was watching tv in bed and the bed was vibrating and I was o. O wth and it was only for a few seconds so no damage and nothing even fell or moved

It's our TORNADOES that get bad

Anyone on the West Coast around here is nicely in that 'Ring of Fire" scientists like to talk about. There was some fear mongering over "the big one" when I was little so I was concerned about quakes for a time but it's largely worn off now. We all have earthquake kits, and a friend of ours who lives on an area around here that's below sea level has an axe and inflatable boat in his attic (at my mom's insistence).

Speaking of fire, my boss lives about ten miles from one of the huge wildfires. He was complaining about smoke in his eyes.

Yeah, the fires have been bad. They're up here, too. One of my in-laws lost his house. They just had time to let the horses out, hook-up the fifth-wheel and drive off.

The ones down in Santa Barbara?

And, as mentioned earlier, this whole "doorframe issue" was caused by incorrect information passed along by school teachers approximately 20-ish years ago and in a state that seldom has earthquakes strong enough to be of any major note. The previous earthquake of any real note happened 12 years ago and I never felt it.
Having also been previously corrected on proper earthquake etiquette, I will know for the next big quake...in 10+years.

Gizzie: Ohhh...I would hate to live in a place that gets a lot of tornadoes! One of my friends loves them and really wants to stormchase in Tornado Alley. I will never ever go with him for that though.

It's kind of interesting to see how relative the idea of danger is between locals and not. I can say I'd be scared of living in a high risk tornado area, but then, here I am in a high risk earthquake area and when people say as much I'm more or less "meh."

Speaking with my Australian roommate in uni at one point was something like
"OMG poisonous spiders! How do you EVEN!"
"But bears! I mean like BEARS!"

*Note: poster does not actually say "how do you even?"

There are quite a few animal encounter stories that float around the family, and one earthquake story, that being my brother who managed to sleep through one.

...the nearest fault line is over 150 miles away, if I recall, and isn't that active...so I don't experience much earthquake-wise.

*Offers hugs and food for kitties*

Yeah, those.

I grew up in Kansas. I have a healthy respect for tornados but I don't live in terror of them.

A few years back, I worked/volunteered at a museum. One of my favorite exhibits to operate was the Earthquake simulator, which, every three minutes, would simulate the next earthquake in a list of ten historical quakes.

There was a family (almost elderly) visiting all the way from /Ukraine/, who were like, "How do you even /live/ in an earthquake zone? I'd be too scared!"

And I nearly asked how they managed to live in Ukraine, what with Pripjat and Russia and everything, but decided to keep my trap shut.

I grew up in Southwest Iowa. Only thing that will wake me up most months is the monthly tornado test. and it's more of a "Do I have to duck and cover? Or is it just a test of the systems?" thing for me. Last time I heard the sirens outside of a test, I was already in the basement, and had captured the cats (at the time, we just had the cats) and boxed them up. Turns out the tornado hit the next town over, and damaged or destroyed a barn (Can't remember now, even though it was just a year and a few months ago).

Worst wind storm I can recall ripped the roof off the middle school when I was in 5th grade. then one year, we had a storm that had a tornado hit a mile from town, and I thought it was a mile from where I was, so I was freaking out with worry for my mom... everyone was okay.

Tornadoes and wind storms scared me more as a kid than they do now. It's just part of growing up near the middle of Tornado Alley. You learn how to deal, or you move somewhere else.

I had a friend growing up who had a tree branch thrown through the ceiling of her bedroom in a tornado. That did kinda hit close to home. But I don't think she was IN the room at the time.

I am definitely more concerned about windstorms. We don't get them a whole lot but when we do they get nasty, in large part because of all the trees. My brother has had windows smashed or nearly smashed from rogue tree branches. My sister has had to replace her gate twice from downed trees, and nearly had her van crushed. The type of trees made a difference. We currently have a dangling branch, probably from the last windstorm, over our property that we're trying to figure out how to get down.