[Tobra]

Originally Posted by nostatic

It totally depends on where you are, and distance isn't necessarily the biggest factor - depends on the geology.

I was in marina del rey - 4th floor doctor's office and my ortho was filling a syringe to give me a shot when it happened. I'm amazed it was only 5.8 as it was a *long* roller - easily 30-45 seconds.

I've been through a bunch of quakes here. The scariest being an aftershock of the Whittier Narrows quake in '89 that hit at about 3am (I was living in Pasadena), and then the '94. That one felt like it picked up the house and dropped it back down (again, in Pasadena).

yeah, look at what happened last time in SF with all that landfill in the Marina

I bet I know 30 people that were in the '89 SF quake and the one a few years later in Northridge. All people who did their 4th year at LA County in my class.

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I was in the air and space gallery... imagine having an F-20 and a T-38 hanging on cables over your head.

I don't suppose you happened to have a video camera with you? That would totally kick ass

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

The woman next to me asked, "What do I do? Go under the table?"

You had the presence of mind to say yes I hope. In the '89 quake I was in anatomy lab, seemed to last a long time after the lights went out. Building was on rollers and springs, no damage at all, felt pretty freaky. The Canadians in my lab group were looking at me for what to do. "WTF are you thinking, get away from the window, stand in the doorway" I must admit, we did have a nice view of downtown. The crane across the street swaying back and forth, North to South.

I would rather have earthquakes. If you have a hurricane, you get your flooding, and your tornadoes, air borne debris, ever see a drinking straw buried into a tree? Floods are nasty, been in a few flooded houses, smell is almost to the level of gangrenous foot or necrotic bowel in some cases.

You are unlikely to be severely injured in an earthquake unless you are very unlucky, wrong place, wrong time. My brother-in-law was in Scott's Valley(near the epicenter, definitely the wrong place and wrong time) when that '89 quake hit; in a warehouse with sheet metal stacked to the ceiling, destined to be the metal box for a personal computer to live in. He was able to run outside and avoid being injured or killed by falling metal. Their 55 gallon fish tank did not even fall off the crappy bookshelf they had it on in San Jose, where it shook pretty hard, according to the sis.

We are due for one, been earthquake weather lately too...