This is not quite how I was expecting to start 2010 off . . . with a blog about a 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit only miles away from where I live. I'm a Cali girl and I have grown up with earthquakes happening all the time. I used to live in an area where you could get on average at least 5 tremors a day. Now that I'm in NorCal, we don't get earthquakes as often and I'd found myself lulled into a sense of security. So, when the quake hit Saturday afternoon, I have to say I was really surprised. It started out as a small rumble but quickly grew into a strong jolting force that practically catapulted me off the couch (I happened to be playing Borderlands at the time). As things started to fall off the walls and fly off of the bookshelves, I found myself hurriedly grabbing my TV as it started to sway off of its stand. Then I heard a really loud "CRASH" in the living room as the lights flickered and then everything went dark. A few seconds after the quake was over, power came back on and I went to survey the damage to the house. Luckily, everyone was a-okay though my dog was really freaked out. The crash I had heard happened to be a big mirror in the living room that shattered when it fell from its mounted position above the fireplace. When it fell, it took a few surround sound speakers with it. Most of the bedrooms only had a few things come off a couple shelves. My room unfortunately had a lot of stuff fly off of a lot of things. My entertainment center had become a huge concoction of tangled wires and hookups that had become detached. All in all, it took us a couple hours to get everything cleaned up. Luckily, the house was perfectly fine, the only thing we lost was mirror, a few of my mother's figurines, and a lot of plates and dishes.
After the clean up at my house, we headed out to work to see if there was any damage. Unfortunately, the main building in town had broken windows, damaged merchandise, and a large crack in one of the walls. The other location up north didn't even have one picture out of place. As we headed back home, we went into town to get something to eat and found that almost half of the town was without power. It was an eerie sight when you pass by a place like the mall or a restaurant, usually always lively, now completely black and empty. The only place open was a McDonald's that had a line of cars down the road. As we drove back to the house, you could see dozens of houses and businesses with shattered windows, some were taped up with "danger", while others seemed unaffected. There were hundreds of city workers, firefighters, and other personnel out trying to restore power, assess damage, and look for any fire threats.
While the block that I lived on kept power, roughly 28,000 people lost theirs. While you still see clean up crews around town and tons of people flooding the local grocery stores (the one near my house lost around $100,000 worth of goods), most everything else has gone back to normal. I can definitely say that I wasn't expecting to start 2010 off with such a bang.
