Still panic free after a 5.9 earthquake! Today at 2 pm we had a severe earthquake and I was home alone. My dogs ran out of the house to the fenced back yard and I heard a distant rumble. I thought, maybe a dump truck or a train, and then the whole house shook violently and the windows rattled. My heart sank and I knew it was an earthquake. I tried to go outside, but fell and couldn't get out, because the ground was moving underneath me. It fell like one of those fun house floors. I stood up in the doorway and held on. The grumble and rumble was deafening, it felt like an elevator drop and I thought my house was going to fall into a sink hole. I looked to my left and my 130 yr.old house was slanting diagonally to the right and then slanted diagonally to the left. The whole time it was making a terrible creaking noise. I honestly thought the house was going to crash down on top of me like a house of cards. I remember wanting it to just stop, but it kept going and I wondered how much the house would take before it would come down. I realized there was nothing I could do. I had no control of the situation. At one moment, I thought, this was it, I'm going to die. But, I stood firm despite the motion sickness, dizziness and disorientation of the whole event. It seemed like it went on forever although I know it was only minutes. Talk about exposure! I kind of accepted the situation and calmed myself down and told myself it would be alright, it eventually will stop and it did. My dogs ran inside barking and my cat was on the screened in front porch running back and forth, I think she felt unable to escape, but calmed as soon as she was sure it stopped. Everything had fallen off the shelves, water bowls for pets were spilled, there were two cracks in the foundation of the house, but we all survived unharmed. A few years ago I survived an F-5 tornado that hit 3 houses down and wiped out our entire town. And, now Hurricane Irene is on it's way up. I am not afraid, although I would like to move :) We can't afford it, and the housing market is bad, so here's to more exposure. I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to add to my gratitude book.
