senoritafish

4:55 pm. Oh wow. That's kind of a big one. The building was swaying quite a bit and it went on for at least a minute.



( ETA )

I didn't feel the larger one yesterday afternoon, the one centered near Mexicali, because I was driving home from the grocery store. The kids had just gotten home from spending the day with their grandma, and ran to the car as I parked, yelling "Did you feel that?!"

This morning I woke up early and was doing some work on my laptop - I wanted to send something to my boss before I actually went in - and suddenly all the furniture gave a short, sharp creak. I didn't really feel anything myself, and had the lights out so I didn't notice if the lamp over the desk started swinging, but the sound came from several directions. Sure enough, there was a small one under Fountain Vallery (2.9, so considered a microquake) at 5:57 am.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/ci/14613044/us/index.html



(sciencedude sez...)

Mustard
Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
30 August 2009

Mustard is a non-native plant, and the sky is colored by a combo of L.A. smog and a forest fire, but together it makes for a good picture, I guess...

( More Station Fire... )

(Mostly written yesterday afternoon)

We hadn't been to Dismalland in a while, not since we'd gone with (Uncle) Doug, and I was convinced we need to go a few more times before the passes get blocked out for the summer (unless you get the most expensive passes, Saturdays, most school holiday breaks, and all of July and half of August are blocked out). We'd spent some time at CA Adventure, then went over to Tomorrowland where one of us expressed a desire to take in Innoventions - which I haven't been on since it was America Sings, what 15 years ago? - but it had just closed. The line for Star Tours was out the door - which it never is, at least the times we usually go, so we decided to make our way over to New Orleans Square. Indiana Jones, also a 45-minute wait. Ick. I suppose we're spoiled. So Avalon charged up the Tarzan's fake tree (also renamed about ten years ago, because no one remembers Swiss Family Robinson, do they?). You don't realize how tall that treehouse is until you climb to the top and you're up higher than any other surrounding building. The kids had gone on ahead of me, and I was coming down to the second highest "room" (where Tarzan's gorilla mom is playing with him as a child), and I felt the tree swaying a bit. I looked ahead of me and there were several larger-sized people on the walkway ahead of me, and thought maybe (being larger-szied myself) I should wait until they moved on a bit before I joined them; I also looked around to see if someone was jumping on the structure. At the same time, I was thinking "Hmm, you don't usually feel this thing moving around..." - it may look like a tree, but it's concrete and it's pretty solid.

After we descended, we noticed lots of people exiting Pirates, which seemed a little odd, but we continued on our merry way to the Haunted Mansion, an Angus requirement. It still had a small line, just the front walkway, but the door was open and it seemed to be temporary. We joined it and it was then I started hearing people on their cell phones talking about an earthquake. Huh, we hadn't felt anything, I thought. I told the kids we'd give them until we finished the oatmeal cookies I'd brought as a snack (which were pretty big). Alas, we finished and no movement, and it was getting late on a school night. runsamuck wasn't feeling well, and hadn't wanted us to stay too late, so I stated we should probably hit the shop I wanted to visit and then head home. Much protest was heard, but I reminded them we can always come back later. As we walked over to the HM store (dispite my distaste for most Disney merchandising, I'm pretty hypocritical when it comes to this outlet), we heard someone asking why the HM was closed of one of the train conductor cast members. He responded that all the rides were closed, and it's standard procedure after an earthquake, just to inspect everything and make sure everything's safe. I called home and runsamuck told me they had definitely felt it - he had just lain down in bed, and suddenly felt dizzy, but looked up to see the lamp pulls swinging.

I bought a T-shirt for runsamuck - anniversary's coming up - and I asked the salesperson if she'd felt anything - she said no, she'd been walking somewhere at the time. While waiting for the tram to the parking lot, I had to calm Gareth down; he is a worrier, that one, and had worked himself into tears thinking THE BIG ONE is imminent. Lots of hugs all around and I assured him it's not going to be immediately, and the best thing we can do is be prepared. On the drive home, it finally dawned on me that we had felt the temblor; it had been while we were up in the treehouse. Funny, it was subtle enough, and sort of what you might expect to feel while up in a tree (even a fake one), that I didn't recognize that's really what it was.

Yeeks, just another one - 3:49 pm - a sharp jar, like someone dropped the building an inch or two. The person in the cube next to me and I are the only ones who felt it here...

Did not realize there was a wildfire going on until I looked out the bedroom window and realized the sky was black.

Freeway Fire (in Anaheim Hills/Yorba Linda)
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
15 November 2008

Predicted to be the worst storm in years, the radio was saying all day that you should stock up food, water and extra blankets in case of power outages. I guess it hit northern CA worse, because here it was done by morning. It was pretty windy, though. My crappy attempt at photographing rain at night on a last minute trip to Target.

Earlier in the summer, tsunami warning signs began appearing along the beaches, and on the downhill side of the streets heading to the coast. My part of the city is located on a mesa, so it is the high ground everyone would be running too. This sign is a couple of blocks from my house. And we've got that OC grafitti going on already; that little sticker guy already appeared here.

( Uphill side of the street... )

Hmmm, this appears to give some confirmation to what you said, Onna. Although it is an Op-Ed piece by the head of another relief agency and not investigative reporting. Forgive me, but I always like to dig around for myself and I had been trying to find out a bit more. I'd like to find the articles mentioned in this one. I asked a few other people what they'd heard - John's grandmother said the Red Cross had gotten thrown out of Port Huron MI, although I missed exactly what for.

( The Red Cross Money Pit... )

However, Snopes has this to say: http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/redcross.asp

Nifty! I don't think I've ever seen a thunderstorm on my weather pixie. We just don't get them that often. Angus and Gareth are a bit nervous - I don't think they remember the last one we had - they might've been asleep. I was late home from work because I stopped to take pictures of rainbows.

We just turned on the news and John Wayne Airport is closed because of it.

I've visited Crescent City a couple of times, before and during college. My primary memories are of a mildewy hotel room, redwoods and a picturesque lighthouse. I'm not sure I remember hearing about the only tsunami that's killed anyone in the continental U.S. They evacuated Tuesday because they did remember.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/16/BAGIUD9G061.DTL

( article )