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Day after quake thoughts
1) I feel alone here, but I can tell you that "earthquake" was NOT my first thought when the Old Post Office buliding shook. My first thought was just our building was having an issue (it's an old building that GSA needs to just sell already, I thought it was crumbling around our ears). My second thought was a bomb went off in the Federal Triangle metro stop. Because really, if you're going to terrorize DC, pick the neighborhood between the White House and the Capitol. I grabbed my purse and bolted, running down 8 flights of stairs. Until I got outside and saw others evacuating, I never once thought earthquake. I thought terrorism.
2) My friends who are laughing it off are definitively NOT feds working downtown. Most of my coworkers thought the worst, like me. Like folks in the Pentagon. So yes, friend who works at U of MD, I'm sure it was laughable where you were in the 'burbs, but trust me, when you work downtown, you have a different frame of reference.
3) Yes, newscasters, when there's an earthquake, I get that you're supposed to shelter in place, not run out of the building - but what if you don't KNOW it's an earthquake? My instinct, obviously, is get OUT of the building.
4) OPM says we're closed, yet on my work email admin services says we're open. Who do I believe? Glad it's a telework day for me!
Re: Day after quake thoughts
The possibility of earthquake ran through my head briefly but I immediately tossed that aside thinking "we don't get earthquakes here" and I assumed my building was about to collapse for whatever reason. I'm with you - if you're in an earthquake place, you expect earthquakes, but in DC your mind kind of goes straight to terrorism of some kind or at least some other kind of explosion. I don't think I can laugh off my instinct to flee the building because it was easily 10 minutes (long after I ran into the park) before I heard it was an earthquake.
I swear I read something recently about Trump buying or wanting to buy the Old Post Office building. It was an article about his current projects like the Kluge estate. So maybe there's hope for you?
We thought maybe there was some kind of issue with the building of the metro in Tysons. That construction isn't far from us.
Today we can't take the stairs because there are huge cracks in them. Not sure how it's deemed safe to only have an elevator option for evacuation. :-)
We had a few big plastic bottles of spices fall from the pantry shelf and thankfully everything else stayed in place.
These old buildings are scary in an earthquake! My first thought was construction (there is always something under construction in our building), but then earthquake.
Between the old building and the temporary office space (read: mostly cube-like structures, with no real walls or doors), everything around us, including the giant, metal over head light fixtures, was swinging. But there were people outside who barely felt a thing. I really thing *how* much you felt affects how seriously you took the whole thing.
And I was an oblivious college student in the 'burbs on 9/11, so that wasn't my first thought. But for my coworkers that were downtown that day, it was definitely on their minds.
i think some west-coasters are being real douchebags. yes, our earthquake was something they get several times/year. however, our stone structures aren't meant to withstand an earthquake of that magnitude. (exhibit: national cathedral, washington monument, rotunda, an apt bldg in pg county that is now condemned and so many buildings in mineral, va) plus, given the 9/11 history (magnified by the 10th anniversary & so near the date), people were really scared. and poking fun of that isn't cool.
i wasn't downtown so my first thought really was an earthquake, but i was alone in a greenhouse that was moving side-to-side as well as up & down. i was scared and i couldn't call anyone to see what was going on.
i'm actually disappointed by some ppl's reactions.
I thought metro crash first as my office is right over a metro, then I went to terrorist attack. Earthquake came a few minutes later.
I agree that west coasters are being kind of jerky about this. I think anyone who lived through 9-11 in NY or DC pretty quickly thinks terrorist attack when something weird happens. And once the adrenaline is pounding, it's hard to get calmed down again.
My first thoughts were:
1) A large construction vehicle crashed into our building (there's a lot of construction being done near my office).
2) A bomb went off somewhere.
3) Earthquake?
It only took about 30 seconds to figure out it was #3, because my coworker next door was on the phone with someone in another county and they felt it, too. So then I realized it wasn't localized to us.
This may not have been a large earthquake by most standards, but by OUR standards, it was huge! If LA ever gets snow, we can point and laugh at their ineptitude.
At first the windows were just vibrating so I thought something was going on construction wise but then the second wave came and ceiling tiles fell, books fell off the shelf and honestly I had no idea what it was. I was in a co-workers office and we just quickly walked to the stairwell. Once I got outside and realized there was no smoke, no fire, and saw all the other people coming out of the buildings around us that it had to be an earthquake. But earthquakes don't happen here so I was skeptical for a few minutes.
We are really close to the airport and sometimes the building does shake from planes.
being on the 11th floor of an office building was not fun. this building seriously moved.
glad everyone is okay.
Honestly, at first I thought someone was walking by my cube with a big heavy cart. Then, I thought a big train was going by (my office is right by the metro/MARC station, and a huge construction site). Then I thought maybe they were blasting at the construction site again. THEN, when the building was still bouncing and swaying, did we realize it was an earthquake. It honestly never crossed my mind that it might be terrorism.
I think being on the 14th floor (which is really like the 17th), it went on longer than for people lower down. We had all kind of congregated near by one coworker's cube, who had actually lived in CA for a while, and she was freaking out and yelling that this was not a joke and to get under our desks. THAT'S when we realized it was serious. We are slow on the uptake . . .
I think my BFF in CA is actually more jealous that we've been getting so many earthquakes and she hasn't experienced one since she moved out there.
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Somehow I actually missed the whole quake. our building evacuated and everything and I didn't notice.
But DH was working at Ft. Meede and said his first thought was terrorist attack, too.
i'm not in DC right now but having been ten blocks from the world trade center on 9/11, i know my first thought would have been terrorism too. it was my first thought during the blackout in 2003.
since DH was home having lunch, he thought it was construction initially.
seriously, any west coasters being @sshats can suck it. none of my cali friends said anything i thought to be out of line but most of them lived in new york in 2001 and/or seem to have the good sense to keep their mouths shut.
all of my contacts - friends and family -- have been more than understanding and solicitous, so I'm sorry that others of you are not getting the same support. these are the same friends and family who were worried for us on 9/11 and in Snowmageddon, so... I have good friends and family.
That said, I agree with all of you -- my office is block from the White House and my thoughts immediately went to terrorism. I quickly realized, with my hallmates, that it was an earthquake and since none of us had any experience with that, we did what we knew how to do, which was run. Most of us without purses, etc. - although, as it turns out, phones were useless anyway.
Our building rattles a bit when large, heavy trucks are going up 18th Street, and there is a complete renovation going on at the GSA building there so .. it could have been any of those things. All that's running through your head as you're running down the stairs and trying to get away from the sheets of glass/window wall in our lobby. Once we were allowed back in -- to get out stuff and clear out -- I did just that. Made it home in about an hour (usually 30-45 mins) so no trouble there, thankfully.
"What is a week-end?"
have you not seen the "damage" photos that are of a patio chair tipped over or a yogurt cup tipped over? insensitive, especially given the serious destruction of people's homes & businesses at the epicenter.
apparently these photos first did the rounds when we had our earthquake last year (the one in the middle of the night). which almost makes it worse.
My thought process went as follows:
1. WTF did these dumbass construction workers do now? (we're finishing up a renovation/new build and it's been *that* kind of project)
2. Holy shiz. Seriously WTF did they hit? ::runs to the window::
3. Oh crap. This is a for realsies earthquake.
4. OMG it's not stopping!!!!!!!
and then my co-workers and the construction manager were like "WTF?!?!?!" and then we went about our regular schedules. I left, but was planning on leaving anyways since I had to drop some stuff off at the printers. Driving down Rockville Pike was nuts though. There was a firetruck at ever high rise, basically.
I can totally see how people downtown would think it was an attack though. DH's mind went there. He was sitting in a basement and was like "FML" and then they moved all the security cameras to important places (capitol, white house, airports, pentagon) around to look for smoke and didn't see any, so then they went into earthquake mode. Not that he could evacuate or anything...
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
I was on the 6th floor of a building in Rockville. During the very first second, I thought it was something with the HVAC system on the roof (which I sometimes hear above my cube) but then when I really felt the shaking, I thought it was an earthquake. I went into someone's office (which has more wall supports) and got under a desk.
The whole experience made me realize we need a better family disaster plan. DH didn't have the DCP's number in his phone where he could find it and didn't even know the DCP's last name. This was a bit of a wake-up call for me. There was a good article in Parent's magazine last month about planning for emergencies so I'm going to read it again and put some things in place so we are better prepared.
i haven't seen anything like that but i am also in the mountains and have mostly been online via my phone. i would definitely find that offensive. i also found the celebrating over bin laden's death rather offensive and minimized my facebook use for a few days afterward.
i haven't read all the responses but Arts i honestly thought explosion/terrorism too. i work next to Wash Post over an ally and honest to god thought a truck pulled in (as it does several times a day) and blew up (but then realize i didn't hear explosion) so next thought was white house, just a few blocks away....then coworkers were smart enough to be "get to doorways" and we stood there until it stopped...then building was evacuated. it was freaky.
daaaamnnnn didn't even think of that
My first thought was also some kind of train issue because tracks for Amtrak/VRE/Metro pass mere feet from our building.
Once I realized that wasn't happening, I knew it was an earthquake because I've been in them in CA and MO.
Terrorism didn't even pass through my mind, although most of my coworkers who were here on 9/11 had the same thought as all of you guys.
I didn't get scared until I saw all my coworkers running for the glass encased spiral staircase while the shaking was still occurring- I was having nightmares of the glass shattering in and the spiral structure shifting and breaking all night.
Stand up for something you believe in.
I thought it was a plane crash. Sometimes the house shakes a bit when a plane makes a super low approach (we're on one of the flight paths to Dulles). So I figured a plane had crashed nearby. This was probably influenced by the fact that we had just returned from the airport about an hour before. We were on a flight out of Chicago yesterday morning. In the morning, waking up at 5, I was b!tching about the flight time and wishing we had chosen a later one. Now I'm glad we didn't since I heard they kept flights from landing for a bit, so being in the air and not being able to land would have been not fun.
Some sort of bomb crossed my mind quickly as well before I got online/turned to the news and read earthquake.
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I was just shocked by how long it lasted. And I kept thinking that my house was definitely not made to shake like that. I was really wondering how much it could take.
And because I've never been through an earthquake before, my first instinct was to head to the basement (like for a tornado and because I'm dumb sometimes). But as I put my hand on the door to the basement, it dawned on me that if the house collapsed, it would, in fact, collapse into the basement. duh.
And it was a little hard to think clearly with the house shaking, stuff falling off the walls and shelves, while carrying my 35lb child who was continually asking "what's happening?". I shudder to think what could have happened if it had been an actual life threatening situation--I'm thinking of the Alabama tornadoes. yikes.