Where Were You Five Years Ago?

Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the Nisqually Earthquake.

I missed it, which in a way was worse than being here. My assistant was in my office when it happened, and it scared her half to death. My wife was at her office, and enjoyed the ride. I was on a plane, and when I deboarded at Laguardia CNN was running footage of a 6.5 magnitude quake in Seattle. The instantaneous panic I felt at that moment is something I don’t care to go through again.

The hardest part was not having information. Phones were down, and I couldn’t get through to anyone. I didn’t know if Robin was OK, if my house had fallen down, if my street was in flames, or what. News footage showed brick building facades spilled onto cars in the one block in the entire city where that actually happened, but from the newscasts you thought half the city must have tumbled. When I made it to my friend’s house in Brooklyn, I collapsed into her arms and wept from the tension.

"Oh, everything’s fine here," said Robin, when I finally got through. "Nothing moved in the house. The cat didn't budge from her perch until I got home, and she really needed to pee."

Comments

[Karen]

I, too, was out of town: I'd flown down to Cupertino that morning to interview for a different position within Apple. One of the interviewers came into the meeting room and mentioned that there'd been an earthquake in Seattle. My laptop was open on the table, and I had a wifi connection, so I immediately checked out the news sites. They were saying no fatalities reported, and no damage to downtown buildings (where Zorg was working) so I went on with the interviews. At one point I emailed my mom in Florida to let her know that I was safe in Cupertino. I let the interviewers know that I needed to answer my cell phone if Zorg called, which he did (reporting that he'd ridden out the earthquake under a conference table with a client). Flights to Seattle that night were cancelled, so Apple put me up at a lovely hotel. It was weird to have no luggage! I washed my clothes, spent the evening in a bathrobe while they dried, and Zorg called to regale me with tales of coming home to find the house in fine condition -- until he opened the medicine cabinet and the contents, shaken by the quake, fell out into the sink.

[Kristina]

I was on a plane at Seatac, getting ready to fly to Cincinnati with my then 8-month-old girl. We had just backed away from the gate, lined up to start taxiing, and the planes engines started to power up. The plane started rocking back and forth and my first thought as a fairly nervous flyer was "Um... there's something WRONG with this plane. We should NOT take off." Then someone said "It's an earthquake. And a big one."

After if was over, they took us back to the terminal and cancelled all flights in and out. After much trying, I was able to get through to my husband who had been driving with our son sleeping in the backseat when it happened. They came and got us and we made our way back to Bainbridge (where we were living at the time).

So even though I was here, it was a strange experience... I mean, when you're in an airplane, you *expect* movement, so I wasn't particularly freaked out as I might have been had I been in a building that is *supposed* to stay still.

I was at home in Marysville, whe they earthquake occured. It was rather strange too. The ground rolled instead of having that back-and-forth sensation like I once felt in California. So, I was in my living room when I heard the wallss start to creak and make cracking sounds. I thought nothing of it until I heard my mom calling from the bedroom. As I made my way through the hallway a vibrating motion had now come to play. As I entered the room my mom said that we're having and earthquake. I ran up to her with a puzzled face hoping that she was joking. Right after that was when the groud started to heave up and down violently. We ran under the doorway for the next 30-40 sec waiting it out. After we tried calling relatives but the lines were jammed. Luckily everyone was alright.