Earthquake!
I live in earthquake country, and in the 13 years I've been here I've been through a couple of notable ones - the first was in the middle of the night in 1999 - they called it the TwentyNine Palms earthquake as that was the nearest part of civilization, although it was felt a couple hundred miles away in Orange County, CA. The news back home (for want of a geographic location) considered it as being just outside of Los Angeles. That was hubby1 and I up all night, then cos the phone didn't stop ringing.

There were a few others that happened while I was out with friends, scary? Hell yes, earthquakes are horrible. You never know if it's "the big one" or if it's just a "tremblor" at 5.2 magnitude.
But I'll never forget what they called the "Easter Sunday Quake". I was in my apartment, alone, sitting down with a cup of tea and a book, and I saw the vase of flowers on my coffee table kind of bouncing around. The cats suddenly did a "meowp" and disappeared.
My quakesense kicked in and I realized it was an earthquake.

That bastard lasted a good 45 seconds.....and if you've ever felt an earthquake, 45 seconds seems like an hour.....after mentally going through the motions, standing in the doorframe, I finally was yelling to please make it stop (and I wasn't the only one, I could hear the neighbours screaming), wondering if this was it, the big one that was going to tear California apart.

It was obviously nowhere near as bad as the Indonesian quake or last years Japanes quake, but it was the first earthquake I've ever been in while solely on my own and it scared the motherfucking shit out of me.
It was a 9.2 down in Mexico, and we felt it over 400 miles away at such a strength. It was like being on the ocean, just a very strong rolling sensation and there were reports afterwards of people feeling seasick from it.
Most damage done in my place was a couple of broken jars of Prego, and the vase of flowers overturned. For a couple of months afterwards we had 2-3 (not aftershocks) independent quakes, the biggest of which was a 4.7 and my mouth would go dry and I'd shake like a leaf.

We haven't had one in a while, and I'm dreading the next on, because it could be "the one".

But at least it's sunny and warm almost everyday with an average annual temperature in my city of around 71 deg Farenheight.
(nolongernuts, Sat 7 Apr 2012, 10:08, 5 replies)

that's one good thing about england
even a minor tremor is big news here, the chances of a full-on quake are slimmer than posh spice's ankles
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Sat 7 Apr 2012, 11:39, closed)

That's what the people of Lisbon, Portugal, thought.
Back in 1755.
(uncle_bud is not the jelly roll king., Sun 8 Apr 2012, 1:19, closed)

posh spice was alive back then?
wow, she looks good for her age!
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Sun 8 Apr 2012, 9:59, closed)

I was in the 89 Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco, scared the beejesus out of me !
(MrPhoto, Sat 7 Apr 2012, 20:04, closed)

I remember that one...
I was still living in CA at the time, except I was in downtown San Diego. Yeah, that was rough, I remember all of the cars on Clairemont Mesa Blvd (the street next to my apartment) slamming to a halt as it shook a good 30-45 seconds. Most of them are just not that long, which is why it was so worrying.
(Magus Zeal reloading since, Mon 9 Apr 2012, 21:19, closed)