East Coast Earthquake

Hard to believe, but we had a small earthquake here yesterday.  You'd think from all of the press coverage that buildings had collapsed and thousands have been killed.

There has been damage.  The National Park Service found a crack in the Washington Monument.  I've been watching the news on and off for the last 24 hours from the Washington, DC stations, and I have heard nothing about the monument leaning or being tilted.  I saw the live feed out of Washington at lunchtime, and it doesn't look as if it's tilted.  I remember looking at plans from the monument several years ago, and there is a lot of monument underneath the ground.  In order for that monument to tilt, I believe we would have had to have a stronger earthquake.

There was major damage to St. Patricks Cathedral in Baltimore, as well as to the National Cathedral in Washington.  Both are closed until furthur notice while structural engineers take a closer look at the buildings.

Where was I during the earthquake?  I was walking into the church with the kids.  I heard the building and ground rattling as we walked up to the door, but there were large trucks driving by the church at that time.  My initial thought was "Good heavens, those are big trucks.  What kind of a load are they carrying?"  We walked into the church and heard the sounds of the preschool kids screaming, and saw all of our pastors and office staff standing in the doorways in the offices. 

My middle son, who is not lacking in self-confidence, announced as he walked into the church office: "The ground trembles at my arrival!"  

In passing, I would like to note that the cats were going absolutely nuts yesterday.  They were throwing themselves around the house, running into walls, and tearing up and down the hallway.  I talked to some friends last night at church, and I heard the same thing over and over again.  Whether people owned a dog or a cat, the animals were going nuts in the hours leading up to the earthquake.  Interestingly enough, our cats have gone nuts several times since then.  The kids have a screen on the computer hooked to the National Geologic Website, and when the cats start bouncing off the walls again, we'll check their online seismograph and find out that, sure enough, we've had another aftershock.  Some of them have been too small for us to feel, but the cats have definitely felt them.

Truly, I enjoyed the earthquake.  It's a better ride than anything I've been on at HesheyPark. 

I am so glad that I don't live on the West Coast, where these things happen on a regular basis.
And I am so thankful that no one was hurt or injured. 

Be careful out there!