Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Earthquake

Three Pepper perspectives on today's events.

Becca:
I was in Abigail's room, trying to resettle her after a mid-nap wake-up, and I heard a rumbling, getting closer and louder. Having been in Arlington and DC during 9/11 times, my first thought was that it was a jet plane about to crash. Then things started to shake, and instead of one large explosion as I would have expected with a crashing plane, the rattling continued and got harder. My first instinct was to cover Abigail and yell for Betsy to come in so I could protect her too, but then I realized that we should probably get out of the house.

I grabbed Abigail and Betsy (who was heading to my room) and ran outside. On the way out, I noticed that the water in the fish tank was sloshing and I was glad that I hadn't gotten around to refilling it yet, or that would have been a giant mess on the floor. Both girls were shaking, which I found interesting. It made sense to me that Betsy would have been scared, but I guess Abigail sensed that something was amiss as well.

We still weren't entirely sure what had happened. Neighbors emerged from other buildings and convened in the parking lot. Was that an earthquake, we wondered? Here? A neighbor from Guatemala and survivor of several earthquakes confirmed that we had just experienced one, too. None of us had access to news and the cell networks were overloaded, so we just stood around outside, wondering what we should do. Would there be aftershocks? Was there something we should be checking? Eventually we decided to check on the rest of our neighbors and the property in general.

I went inside and loaded up the diaper bag with supplies, got shoes for the girls and myself, and texted a neighbor to see if she wanted me to let myself in to check on her dog and home. Thankfully, everyone and everything seemed to be fine. Some items had fallen off the shelves, but that was it. Our lifeguard, here from Bulgaria for the summer to experience America but sadly stuck at our pool, seemed excited to have watched the waves in the pool and to have experienced an earthquake.

The girls were a bit skittish tonight, and Betsy is having a hard time sleeping. But all in all I'm thankful that we're doing well.

Betsy:
I was watching Sesame Street and my mom was getting my sister down for a nap. It started to shake and I thought the whole house was gonna go down and fall over. It sounded like a car was moving in. Rumbling and grumbling. Nina [our cat] was running. I got really scared. I didn't know what happened. Mommy called me and I went to my mommy's room. We went outside and we saw all our neighbors outside with us.

Matthew:
I was in the office of one of my clients in downtown DC. We felt the floor start to shake and in my head I was trying to rationalize what it could be. Could it be a truck? Could it be pipes rattling? Construction on an adjacent floor? It was too consistent and long to be any of these so as I dismissed each of these the shaking got stronger and I realized it had to be an earthquake. Having grown up in California I had years of earthquake training so I instructed the other two people I was with to get in the doorway. Looking back, the three of us crammed in a doorway must have looked funny. Dust fell from ceiling. It felt like more fell than really did because there was nothing on my suit later. After the shaking stopped the fire alarm went off, I grabbed my bag, and we evacuated to across the street.

Outside everyone was trying to make calls. I texted Becca as I had no idea what she would hear and I wanted to make sure she knew I was fine. My brother Ben in Boston texted me soon after because they had felt it too. After I talked to Becca I asked Ben to call our Mom to let her know all was well. The national mall was full of people from offices and museums who had been evacuated. The National Parks Police helicopter was flying around, checking on the monuments (as I learned later from the news). Thank God it was beautiful day out. Everyone seemed fairly calm and were just trying to figure out what to do.

We stood around and talked as we got updates and messages on our Blackberries. Everyone was being sent home early as buildings were closed until they could be inspected. I met up with my coworker who had been in a different meeting and we went to see if we could get to his car. Luckily it wasn't in a federal building so we could access it. Realistically it didn't matter because the roads were jammed and we weren't getting out for a long time. So faced with spending hours in the car in traffic we opted to spend a couple hours at the nearby hotel bar. We got some snacks and a drink and had a relaxing afternoon. The wait was worth it because the drive home was the smoothest it has ever been.

At home it was great to see my family. The girls are both sleeping in our room tonight and we are so thankful everyone is well. It was not scary for what it was, but for what it could have been.

2 comments:

  1. Earthquake drinks are the best drinks. Glad to hear you were all OK!

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  2. Thanks! I'm sure it was nothing compared to what you experienced in Japan, Geoff.

    ReplyDelete