california EQ moment
 

My wife and I were at our daughter's HS choral perfromance last night. RIht in the middle of one of the numbers there is an earthquake. Not a huge quake, but it was abotu 4.3 and its epicenter was only a couple of miles away so that's a pretty big jolt when you are that close. The building vibrates, you can feel the directional waves pass through, and then there are a couple of very large jolts, lasting for a few seconds, while dust falls out of the rafters. Everyone sort of looks around but the singers keep singing and the band keeps playing and not until the intermission does anyone stop and talk about it.

I am guessing that in a lot of places such an event would be cause for everyone to stop and go home. True or am I overstating our desensitization to earthquakes?

I don't know anything about earthquakes, but this reminds me of when I was driving to take the GRE, the tornado sirens were going off, and I'm watching as people carry on with whatever they're doing. I remember one guy was busily washing his car.

When I got there to take the GRE, they offered me earplugs in case the sirens would be too distracting.

By EQ, I thought you meant Elders Quorum, so I was expecting something really jolting.

We used to have the same thing in Japan. The first few times I thought everyone should go home or do something (like run around screaming). They just went on working, so I did too.

I can relate with both of your experiences Creekster and Babs. Growing up in Southern California small tremors and crawling beneath your desk with your hands clasped over your head was something I thought all kids dealt with. And then on my mission while in western Kansas the first time I heard a tornado siren I about wet myself. And yes most people there just carried on. I remember one evening we were on our way to a dinner appointment when the alarms sounded and looking above us you could see the swirling and rolling clouds and the beginning of a funnel. The members just looked at it like it was no thing and went on with dinner with us as planned.

One time when I was pretty young, lightning struck the lightpole 1 house down. My brother was reading a book with his head resting against a metal bedframe. He felt a shock. And our neighbor lost his TV.

I was in a 8.2 that lasted a full minute. Trust me, I was not carrying on "as usual".

I was golfing in the rain when lightning hit a tree not 50 ft from me. It was the loudest CRACK I ever heard. I felt a slight jolt of electricity through my soggy shoes. Scared the crud out of me.

Were you working on the best game of golf in your life? Was Danny Noonan your caddy?

In Alabama the first year we lived there everybody carried on as usual when the tornado sirens went off, while we spent all the time we could in our safe place. Then later that year a tornado went through our town killing 16 people. The attitudes changed overnight and people were in their safe place when the sirens went off. My daughter had nightmares after a tornado missed her school by 100 feet and they heard it.

This is the one thing about Alabama that I do not miss at all.

I grew up in the bay area and was studying for a test when the 7.2 1989 bay bridge wolld series one happened. Not business as normal. There was a lot of moving and a shaking going on. It was really cool watching the kitchen floor move like waves in water. Then the eirie quiet afterwards outside was very unsettling.

Where I live now, active volcanic area, we get 2.0 or so on a regular basis. Only the big ones even raise eyebrows.

Mike, you can't drop an 8.2 on us and then not tell the story. I have to assume this was somewhere in the South Pacific during the mission.