Slept through it.
But, damn! I just went bug-eyed looking at that guy’s suit…
I’ve lived in California for 15 years and earthquakes still freak me the fuck out. Like leap-out-of-bed freak out. My kid slept through the earthquake, but not through me yanking him up.
Nice. I was in the midst of getting gas, so that was an awesome feeling. And yeah, 14 years here and they still freak me out too.
If you were sitting under a ton of studio lights and rigging and an Earthquake hit, you’d probably freak out and dive under a desk, too.
Oh yeah, they totally did the right thing.
Watching the clip, I was impressed with how quickly they recovered and said “we’re going to go to the US Geological Survey” and clearly threw out the script for what they had been talking about. It’s easy to make fun of news anchors, particularly morning anchors, because so much of what they do is fluff. It’s telling, however, when they have to go off script and they do a competent job, which is what I think those folks did. Bravo to the KTLA folks.
I wonder if getting used to earthquakes is a “grow up with them” phenomenon. I grew up in LA county, and earthquakes have never struck me as a big deal. When we had a quake out here on the east coast a few years ago, people were totally freaking out – my reaction was “huh, that didn’t feel very strong” (although they certainly don’t build to the same standards out here, meaning the quake did an inordinate amount of damage).
Too true, Aleck, I really liked watching them switch modes like that.
Third generation Angeleno (my son was supposed to be born in Los Angeles, but the less interventionist unit was in Anaheim, so he’s a Disneyland kid), not to mention I originally majored in geology in college - I tend to be analytic when quakes strike. I like to guess the amplitude and distance. It has to be awfully darn close (much sharper and jolting movement, rather than the long rolling waves of a much bigger quake farther away) to get me to feel much anxiety. The real danger is in getting caught in the tidal wave of news vans storming down on Cal Tech after a quake.
Been in CA for almost 4 weeks, have yet to feel one. Hope it stays that way. I’m hearing about all this crazy shit I’m supposed to do with my shelving and pictures. Is that really important? I don’t like to work.
Heh, unless you want it all to fall on you in a quake, it’s important. ;)
Welcome, by the way!
They can be easy to miss. The first time I felt one I said something like ‘Wow, somebody dropped something really heavy’ and everybody else at the table just smiled and said that was an earth quake.
All the ones in North Bay so far that I’ve experienced have been easy to miss, except for the dual-quake amplitude booster from a few years back. That one was completely obvious. They’ve all been very short and slightly sharp, depending on where you are, what you’re in, etc. Being out in far East Bay, think you’d be mostly fine from most quake damage (just a blanket non-scientific assumption) and if needed an escape route out you’re practically there already. I’m on top of a rocky hill so should be relatively okay, and my place of work is on roughly stable ground (though I think it was burnt over in the 1906 fire).
In any event, I actually think it’s super-handy to have an earthquake preparedness kit.
— Alan
Hahahaaha
Looks like a pretty good shake.
— Alan
Yup, too much stuff hanging from the ceiling for them not to do exactly what they did. A very close mid-four is going to give you a sharp jolt that will have the rest of the LA basin yawning, and you don’t immediately know if that was it or if it is just the first overture in a build-up of a much longer temblor.
Oh, and the suit color looks much better in that video…
Oh, and for anyone who isn’t a native Angeleno who interpreted my comment above about growing up with quakes as a “too cool for school” comment, I should point out that hurricanes and tornadoes both freak me out. It’s sort of like a horror movie, to me, as the sky gets dark and ominous, the birds are suddenly quiet, etc… I’ll take the occasional temblor any day, but the ball and chain wants to stay on the East Coast.
Soon to be a major motion picture!
Haha, I looked back at page one of this 63 page epic, and I’m guessing the strength and distance of an earthquake in the first four posts.
At least you get warning for those; for hurricanes, it’s days of advanced warning.
Earthquakes are “Oh, I’m just sitting at my PC playing video games AND SUDDENLY EVERYTHING IS SHAKING AND COLLAPSING.”