Growing up in Utah, I was always aware that someday Utah would be hit with a huge earthquake because of the fault line running along the Wasatch Front. We had earthquake drills in school where we learned to get under our desks as quickly as possible or get under a stable door frame if we were caught in an earthquake.
I guess I never really expected to experience an actual earthquake, especially once I moved to DC.
It was a Tuesday just like any other. I was sitting and staring at my computer screen in my office on the 10th floor when I felt a little rumble coming from the floor. Knowing that the front of our building was undergoing lots of construction I wasn't scared. But then comes the second when one realizes that this is no construction. I am experiencing an earthquake. A nod of my head and I saw the buildings outside the window swaying back and forth. The whole world was shaking and rolling back and forth.
My first reaction was not to dive under my cheap plastic Ikea desk but to find a door frame. But I didn't want to stay there. I was afraid that my entire building would cave in on top of my head.
Then came the true test of my character. Instead of staying in my door frame, instead of rushing back to my COO's office who just announced her pregnancy and making sure she was all right, instead of doing anything smart, I bolted for the office door and flew down ten flights of stairs and out to the street.
FYI, that's the last thing you're supposed to do after an earthquake.
Oops......I promise I'm not that selfish but my instincts kicked in and all I could think of was getting out.
At least I was not alone. Almost everyone else had the same idea I had and rushed outside. Come to find out a couple days later that DC flunked the earthquake. We did everything wrong, everything you're not supposed to do during and after an earthquake.
I know, I know, the earthquake ended up only being a 6.0, but for me it scared the junk out of me. All the fears of a little 4th grader learning about earthquakes and waking up at night crying because I was afraid of one resurfaced that day.
So all you Californians can just keep your mouths closed. I know that you feel them all the time. I know that a measly 6.0 earthquake in the United States where all buildings are capable of withstanding an earthquake such as this shouldn't scare me so bad. But it did.
So I survived the East Coast earthquake. I came out unscathed. I got to feel the earth rumble and shake beneath me. I got to experienced what it's like to go through a natural disaster in a big city and all the chaos that ensues immediately after.
And I never, I repeat, never want to do it again. I've experienced all the earthquakes I need to in my lifetime thank you very much.
(The streets after everyone flooded out of their buildings immediately after the earthquake)
(The debris in a grocery store)
Okay so that was the earthquake.
After all the commotion that accompanied the earthquake on Tuesday we turned around to find that Hurricane Irene was heading straight to the East Coast and was scheduled to hit the DC area on Sunday morning.
At first I didn't think this was as big of a deal. Once again, I never really thought I'd actually be caught in an actual hurricane, but then again, I've never lived on the East Coast before. Before I knew it I was receiving e-mails from the church on how to prepare and everything that needed to be done to stay safe and protected during the weekend. I realized that this was becoming a big deal.
By Friday there were reports that stores in my area were out of water and flashlights. We kept on receiving emails on how and when to evacuate.
Irene was preparing to unleash its wrath on the coast and we had no idea what would happen around Arlington, VA. I wasn't about to be caught unprepared.
My roommates and I loaded up on water bottles, non-perishable food, flashlights, first aid, and of course, movies.
Everyone was preparing to "hunker down" which became the go-to phrase of the weekend.
And we waited.
Part of me wanted some excitement (obviously hurricanes don't scare me as much as earthquakes) thinking it would be fun if everything flooded and we had to gather in our church chapel for a couple days and live in sleeping bags and emergency food storage. The other part of me knew that we were stationed too far inland and all that would happen would be some hard rain and wind and maybe a power outage.
Well folks, our lights didn't even flicker. No, not even once.
Yes there was some intense rain and I think around 3 am I woke up to some heavy wind around my apartment, but that was about it.
Unfortunately the coast did get hit pretty hard and Vermont is still recovering from some major flooding, but Hurricane Irene passed DC without so much as a blink of an eye.
What a week huh? On my mission I drove through a tornado, and in one week in DC I got to knock off two more natural disasters off my list of life experiences, an earthquake and a hurricane, now affectionately known as HurriQuake 2011.
Who knows what will hit us next. Whatever it is we now have a lifetime supply of water bottles, wheat thins, and tuna.
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