Here's another take on the quake.
This one was by no means the first--I used to live in Southern California and had felt many tremors and one major one, but I don't recall the magnitude, but it was similar to the one I felt on Aug. 23rd, 2011. In California, the floors in our house would rumble. I was outside playing with other kids when the major one moved the earth and some of us fell down.
I was at work in my office in D.C., sitting at my desk when the quake hit. Just before that, I heard a strange grinding/hissing sound that I thought was machines of some kind, either inside the building or out. The floor seemed to wave then wobble, wave then wobble, and I was shook and wobbled one more time. I thought at first a bomb had gone off below me: then the next two waves and wobbles were tell-tale. I panicked for a few seconds because I didn't know if the floor or ceiling would cave in next.
People in my office came around to my cubicle and told me that we had to evacuate. Well, we had to stand out on a street corner for over an hour before they said to go home. We saw helicopters of the Park Police flying around the Washington Monument (I work across the street from it). I was scared sick to go inside Metro. What if one of those bricks in the ceiling came loose? What if the tracks cracked and a fire started? What if the escalators collapsed?
Well, my DH had driven in to D.C. that morning because he took our son to a summer camp so I called him to meet me to go home. However, he had left his keys in his office, and couldn't go back in to get them. So, we had to wait what seemed like another hour before they allowed people to go back in the building to get what they needed and get out. Phew!!
The office was closed the next day for inspection, so we had a little holiday....Still, the ordeal was unnerving. I bet Californians are laughing at us.
