Earthquakes. They're what's for lunch.

I was just going about my business, making a salad (organic romaine lettuce, condo grown organic tomatoes, organic red onions from YUMMY.COM and organic Avocados...with low fat Organic Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing)...I had just told Tennessee to take his library books upstairs. California was climbing up the outside of the banister/railing(as usual)...see pic below:



Tennessee reached the landing at the top of the staircase and dropped his load of books then suddenly the condo started shaking...

I said "Did you do that?" then with more intensity, "Are you doing that???"

He said "What? NO! That isn't because of my books."

I thought the shaking had stopped and it was just construction or something but then it started again. It kept going and going and going. The staircase was shaking and rattling. I could hear metal and parts of the condo rattling. I quickly noticed that the staircase was only anchored in two places and envisioned the heavy glass block wall crumbling down and said "It's an earthquake." with unmistakable urgency. I told Tennessee to get down right now...grabbed California off the ledge and waited for the shaking to stop.

I looked at the clock. It was 11:42am. The shaking lasted for about 15 - 20 seconds. Maybe more. We immediately looked on the USGS Earthquake website and found out that we had just experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake (it was later downgraded to a 5.4). We noticed the chandelier swaying again at 11:48. We later found out that was an aftershock measuring at 3.8.

We had at least 30 aftershocks...but we only felt two.

To be honest, I wasn't that surprised. Sure it caught me off guard and I did freak out a little, but I have been expecting this for a while. After all, we live in EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY and WE PREPARE for things like this; right?

The cell phones weren't working but the landlines were.

Later in the day, we had a blackout...we still haven't discovered what caused this as it happened hours after the earthquake.

Click HERE for disaster preparedness information (if you didn't click on WE PREPARE above).

Tell us your earthquake story. What are you going to do to prepare for the next one?