May 22, 2015

Shake, Rattle and... Wave?

Today, I finally felt my first earthquake. Just before noon today a 5.4 magnitude quake hit just outside Caliente, which is about 2.5 hours from Las Vegas. I was sitting at my desk at work and there was a loud boom - almost like when thunder rattles a house, followed by creaking of the walls. I wondered if a truck hit our building. We often have semi-trailers dropping off materials or I thought, maybe a fork-lift plowed through the wall? At my last job that happened, and it feels similar. The major difference though was how disoriented I felt. It's like a woozy-dizziness comes over you. The oddest part was seeing my metal four drawer lateral file cabinets bend in a wave like motion. Just bizarre. Before I realized what had occurred it was over and Frank was texting to see if I felt it too.

I've been wanting to experience an earthquake forever. This seems to be under the right conditions. I haven't heard of injuries or major damage. It seems the only known damage is to US-95 southbound to I-15 ramps. Rush hour will be a disaster, and folks might be inconvenienced for a bit, but thank goodness no one was hurt.

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