Earthquake, 5.4 and Exploring Space and Time Now Includes.... Shaking Like Jelly

Well I was on line talking to my daughter about going to see Henry IV this weekend, she's at CalTech doing studies. And we had our on-line chat going. So that was interrupted by her saying"oh earthquake"An eathquake hit us here in real time.
Sure enough the inland Empire from Chino Hills had a 5.4 quake , this carries a 5% risk for 24 hours it is a foreshock. I'm listening to coverage now.

The earthquake's magnitude was downgraded to 5.4 at about 12:30 a.m., according to Caltech.

Dr. Kate Hutton, a Caltech scientist, said their computers recorded 27 aftershocks by 12:40 a.m. Hutton said the strongest aftershock was magnitude-3.6.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said there were not immediate reports of damage or injuries in Los Angeles. San Bernardino County fire dispatch also had no immediate reports of damage."The depth was seven miles, and that's pretty shallow," Hutton said. "Any earthquake in California is considered shallow. If a quake is much deeper, then it's not felt as strongly on the surface."

It's ironic that the coverage is coming right from where my daughter is at RIGHT NOW. Can't get her on cell, cut off. So cell phones are useless. That's worth noting. What good would it be if you werehurt? That's poor. It needs to be ready to handle this.

We rolled, my walls moved and I counted 15 waves....it took a ride. She, Sylvia is feel aftershocks and felt the quake much more than I did in Oxnard.


I have to know where my kids are in earthquakes.
When Sylvia was just born we wree living about 18 miles from the epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake. She was darn near crushed by a huge falling bookcase save the fast reflexes of her father. I will never forget that. I was a new mom with lots of anxiety earned by a hard life teaching, low money, much going on for us anyway.
I wrote the following then, shows my writing, embarrassing. But I know I held her the first year of her life and every time I felt this was a ridiculous reaction but ....then a large sharp aftershock would hit. I lost a TV. Lots of property, But...mostly it was just a very frightening 7. whatever size quake that was. I look at this piece and kind of laugh...

THE EARTH IS MOVINGMemories of Loma PRIETAEARTHQUAKE 1989

Every NEW mom can appreciate this....................................................

When Sylvia Mary Puglisi was just shy of Five weeks old a funny thing happened.
Not ha, ha either......

Then we were "residing" in Salinas, in a rather strange duplex.
We had just settled in for the evening on Oct. 17, 1989 to look at the World Series. I was mostly just feeling that totally bizarre feeling of a new mom, no sleep, actually at times feeling a strange kind of internal loneliness, then I'd look at Sylvia and think" oh yeah," and then I mostly felt wet. A nice condition of new motherhood, no one tells you about.

Just trust me it was rare with sylvia
but she was sleeping
by the couch, in front of a big bookcase,
in her stroller right beside me.
I think Jack was back from either work or errand and we were just resting, resting, resting and probably too tired to talk or think.
Sylvia did not sleep at night and thus no one else did either.
(In fact I never remember her sleeping more than ten minutes in any nap.)

The game was ready to go
when a ROAR like a train rumbled
in the ground and a POP hit the TV.

LOUD ELECTRIC POP

I remember the roar as deafening.
It probably wasn't deafening.
And then the entire house moved all over.
OH GOD I THOUGHT
it's the big one.
Forgive my language I felt I was in direct communication with my maker and my mortality.

And the bookcase swayed and lunged at Sylvia the books falling,
I yelled "Jack" and he, thank God for his reflexes,
grabbed the carriage, grabbed the baby
when everything in the house moves just like toys-blocks-you can't trust the "find a heavy piece of furniture" theory.
We ran out the front door and I laid down in the driveway because the cement, the earth, was liquid. All of that probably was 45 seconds. 3 minutes. It seemed hours. thoughts were whirling in my mind including,

WHAT IS GOING ON.........................................
and is this "just the beginning"?

Somehow we saw a neighbor who was out and so calm. He chatted with jack about regretting not having his earthquake insurance. The entire inside of my house was broken, furniture, dishes, memories, TV's I had heard them smashing and yet I just couldn't get up off the ground I was sitting down there going up and down as they nicely carried on their talk over top of me. Jello ground.

Finally-maybe five minutes- Jack said let's go in. He was checking things. The phone was dead. totally it was a mess, garage a mess, the neighbor insisted we cut the gas-you aren't suppose to- and Jack said we needed to get in the car to go check Lucia,
an older friend who lived in the trailer park across town,
her son Machuco was at a natural disaster, I think in South America for Red Cross,which I still find ironic. Friends that came from peru.
I was so glad to get into that car.
we both wondered if we felt the worst or if San Fran. was destroyed. Suddenly you are so cut off from everyone and everything. It is an intense feeling and adrenaline is feeding in Raw. I started feeling that day extra heartbeats like hard drum beats that eventually turned into the heart arrthymia I carry to this day. My heart had an attack with Syl this initiated the beginning of how I was to carry that.
We went and Jack talked to Lucia, it was probably dangerous to drive, I don't really remember a thing about that. I just remember coming back in our house, trying to call Jack's mom and knowing the phone was totally dead.
AND then it rang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was Kenny my brother and I think in large measure my brother proved to me that day that he and I, through thick and thin, are never very far from each other. He knew, he knew, I needed him. I heard later it was impossible that we had phone service that there was none in our area and what we had they cut. and Ken said he was dialing hitting redial at his work at the hotel, just redialing and redialing and as we entered the house one of his calls went through.
RECONNECTED
And Ken listening to the news could tell me we were right near the quake center, the facts he knew. I got to hear Dan Rather say not to call anyone, yeah Dan right,
I wouldn't let him hang up actually.

I had the baby in my arms through all of this and I NEVER SET HER DOWN OR LET HER BE OUT OF MY EYESIGHT AGAIN. I mean this literally as we showered together, slept together and I think I may have turned Sylvia into the ultimate "handbaby"
a term from Clarence Thomas actually whose momma used it to fend off comments about her leaving young Clarence with grandpa,
ANYWAY my brother helped somehow for us to communicate again on OCTOBER 17,
just into the third game of the series A's and Giants. After that I didn't care about it at all. Who won I mean.
I became a woman possessed by fear. The AFTERSHOCKS-oh you can't imagine those. Just as I would say to myself this fear is silly or terrible both that night and over the next year another quake would blast in. Try it some time.

The night and pitch dark came FAST.

Jack made me dinner of Smokie Links, I remember that.
We had no pocket money and couldn't buy at the store, no checks allowed. Actually they bolt up the stores in these situations and I guess worry about vandals. Because we had no hot water for 10 days and no lights or electricity for 7 or so days it wasn't a pleasant time. I got a serious breast then system infection I will spare the world details. Later was in hospital. And in two days, this happened before the weekend, they wanted Jack to go back to work. At least in the EAST you get snow days. I was on maternity leave.

Most people I knew barely registered the whole thing. Even if they lost furniture had cracked foundations or chimneys. But I, oh ,
I was different.
I was launched into the world of fear. It was really severe.
I was so afraid for Sylvia. It was hard. It's hard to remember it actually. My DAD came to visit in two weeks and, boy ,was I so very glad to see him. I still remember the smell of his lovely white shirt. Really clean, I think I must have grabbed him pretty hard.

When I think of times we went through here in California, the floods, mudslides, a couple brush fires, serious high winds and more......

this one TOOK THE CAKE.