I survived!!!

Most of you already know that I survived my first earthquake here in SoCal....let me just say, "HOLY SHIT!!!!"

It happened Easter Sunday, April 4th, 2010. I was sitting at a fellow military wife's house across town. She lives right near the water, hence the intensity we felt.... Her daughter just woke up from a nap and was sitting with me all curled up on the couch and her little boy was upstairs asleep still. I was talking on the phone with D and I felt this vibration in the couch. My first thought was, oh my phone is about to ring/my friend's phone is about to ring. Then a split second later, I realized, I was on my phone...duh.

Then I felt the "wave". That is really the best way to describe it. It felt like the ground was waving or swaying under us. We both just kind of stared at each other, then I yelled for us to go outside. She took off upstairs for her little boy, taking the stairs 3 at a time. I ran out the front door with the little girl. I started to hear stuff break in her house and I could see their flat screen tv shaking and looking like it was about to tip over...and she wasn't outside yet. I didn't have any idea how long it would last, or how much worse it could get. I yelled for her and she came stumbling down the stairs, sleepy baby in tow.

We stood out on the side walk for what seemed like a good minute before the ground stopped moving. I am sure it was much less time than that, but who knows. My heart was racing so fast and my adrenaline was pumping!!! We could see the street signs shaking and people flowing out their front doors. It was quite a sight I am sure!

It took us a while before we got the courage to go back inside. Neither one of us were sure it that was it, or what would happen next. My friend has been out here almost 2 years I believe, and she said that this was the worst one she ever felt. She said she was so glad I was there because she would have freaked out being there by herself with the 2 babies.

The earthquakes was about 130 miles from where we are....just south of the international border into Mexico and about 100 miles east of Tijuana. It was in far eastern Baja California almost to the main part of Mexico and Arizona. When I was on the phone with D, he said he could feel it too. He said his truck was rocking really bad back and forth. He said he thought a light pole was going to fall over onto it. He was in eastern Cali, near the town of El Centro, which is almost to Arizona. So he was much closer to it and could really feel it. My friend thought that since we were right on the water, that must have been why we felt it so hard.

So...we finally go back inside and turn on CNN and start watching the news coverage...oh media, it is nice to have you around and responding so quickly sometimes! The first reports were that it was a 6.9 and within a half hour it had jumped to a 7.2. And I guess it was shallow as well, which is why it was felt over such a large distance. I don't know...not for sure on that one.

We were both so nervous, we couldn't do anything. We had to clean up all the broken glass from the candle holders that fell off her wall. The babies just laid on the couch motionless. I think we scared them pretty good. We started making phone calls to her command and our friends and family to let them know we were okay.

Thankfully no real damage was done. We continued to feel after shocks the rest of the night and she said she was going to sleep on the second floor in between her babies instead of her third floor bedroom...I am pretty sure she did just that.

But all in all, no major damage done. Although I will say, I prefer tornadoes over earthquakes thankyouverymuch!!!