Tempting Fate with July 4th Earthquake in Southern California

[nevetslab]

I've only been living in Glendale, CA since April 2015, and haven't felt ANY earthquakes until yesterday morning. I was laying back in bed, semi-conscience until just after 10:30AM PST, when the building began shaking in somewhat of a northernly direction, for a good 15 seconds, it seemed. I looked up at the ceiling fan, going full tilt, as well as the 34" LCD screen lightly balanced on a wooden plank atop my equipment rack, nothing holding it in place but gravity.

Thankfully nothing went flying, nor spiraled down off the ceiling to get my attention, such as a spinning fan. After surfing the cable channels for the first report and connection to Cal Tech for the details on where and how big, I got to thinking about the gear stacked on the shop bench, relying on.....gravity! Too late to do anything about that, though in time during the day, having nothing come flying off their perch, such as that 34" very-lightweight TV screen, and figuring the orientation to the compass in the shop with everything stacked, I was hoping for the best. I wouldn't know until I got in this morning.



All was where it was when I left on Wednesday, so...........dodged another bullet. Now, where did I put my box of bungee cords?

[xtian]

Yikes! Although, I couldn't imagine a more apropos tomb stone for you than a pile of vintage test equipment.

Keep safe!

[ric]

If you know someone with a boat they might have some ideas on keeping things shiny side up and on the shelves even when the building's moving.

[olddawg]

I’m a native of So Cal. I slept through it but it wasn’t much in La Jolla. I can remember being knocked down during the Alaskan earthquake in the early 60s aa child. They had a sunami warning.. so we all went to the beach to watch. Lowest tide I have ever seen, lol. I’ll take earthquakes over tornadoes any day..

[drewl]

Yeah, I'm glad I live in location that doesn't experience any cataclysmic events.

[Leo_Gnardo]

In San Diego, after a bar party that ran past 2 AM, got tossed out of bed by a quake about 20 to 7 one fine morning in July 1986. My hotel room was 2nd floor, with a balcony over the water. I figured, if the building starts coming down around me, I'm gonna jump into the ocean. That's when the quake stopped. Surprisingly a lot of crew members were at breakfast in the hotel restaurant by 7. Wake up call!

Another one in Japan, maybe 2001? I was on an expedition to Tokyo's Akahibara electronics bazaar with our FOH and monitor mixers. We took a break in a coffee shop located in the base of a train bridge about 5:30 PM, knowing it was folly to try to get back on the subway during the infamous rush hour. While I was sipping sake, all the globe lights hanging from the ceiling started swinging back & forth in unison. "That's no train!" A couple seconds later, the big rumble and a lot of nervous laughter & smiles from the natives. We fooled 'em again, didn't we Chief?

[dmartn149]

I lived in SoCa for the first 40yrs of my life and experienced a few earth quakes. I never personally knew anyone who had been injured by one, so consequently I was never really afraid of them.

[olddawg]

7.1 in Mohave tonight. I felt that one rockin’ and rollin’!

[Chuck H]

Having spent most of my life in the San Francisco bay area I've experienced a lot of quakes. All of them leading me into the lull of just riding them out without much to think but "Huh.?. Another earthquake." Utterly nonplussed by their ability to scare everyone around me because all I'd ever known was that a bunch of little earthquakes happen where I lived. Then... In 1989 I was working for the Dunne paint company in Campbell, Ca. as a store employee. That's where I was when the Loma Prieta 6.9 quake happened. About ten miles from the epicenter. It was an eye opening experience to be sure. When it was actually happening and the aftermath. I have a half dozen stories about the event. One involves the fact that I was working in a paint store because back then five gallon plastic paint cans had metal lids (read non elastic). Not plastic like now. The warehouse had row after row of these stacked four to five high which became a LAKE of paint during the quake.

[Jazz P Bass]

Yeah, I'm glad I live in location that doesn't experience any cataclysmic events.

I wouldn't classify it as a "cataclysmic events" but I do remember back about 15 years ago an earthquake hit the Reading, PA area.
We where playing on the second of a three floor building and it started canting & swaying.
Whoa!

[Leo_Gnardo]

Another one in the Northeast early 2000's, whilst we were on tour somewheres out west. About a 5.5, way up near the north end of the NY/Vermont border. One guy called home in southern VT, his wife said she watched the alarm clock dance across the night table. And the cats ran & hid under the bed. Smart cats!

Then there was that Virginia quake 23 August 2011. I was talking to a customer in my living room when all of a sudden the mirror started clapping against the wall. Like in a ghost movie... Then the floor started shuddering & I heard the building creak. I suggested maybe we better step outside pronto, thinking the old house was about to collapse. No problem, the quake quit & within 5 minutes was on internet news. Google says it was 5.8, a pretty good banger.

Hm... I think these things are following me around.

[Chuck H]

Before going to work on the morning of the 89 Loma Prieta quake I had been practicing and simply leaned my favorite guitar against the couch. When I got in (late that night) things were a mess. Dishes out of the cupboards, pictures off the wall and on the floor, potted plants knocked over and all the dirt shaken out, etc. The first thing I was looking for was my guitar. The couch had scootched five feet off the wall toward the center of the room and at a bit of an angle and the guitar... Was still upright leaning on the couch!

[nevetslab]

The Friday night 7.1 quake had me sitting in my drafting chair, feet propped up on a drum stool watching the Dodger Game on the tele. More intense than Thursday's quake, and lasted longer. Though, while on the second floor of my apt (6-apt building in Glendale, CA), nothing was launching. I've half-expected the very-light-weight 34" wide screen TV to come flying off, but it just moved with everything else. They are unnerving, but, if nothing is rendering damage to you, somewhat entertaining. The Northridge quake in '94, I think it was, threw me out of my bed. I was living a few blocks from the ocean, right across the street from the Redondo Beach Power Plant. Though after that main shock, none of the aftershocks that occurred were felt down there, the area being built on sand dunes. While I was working at the time at BGW Systems in Hawthorne, the only way I knew there was an aftershock was looking thru the double-screen panels of the Lindgren RF screen room, as it would modulate the screens. Didn't feel it though.