5.6 Quake in San Jose, CA

choppers

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One of the things we deal with living here in Cali...We are overdue for a quake here in Socal....:(
 

TigerhawkT3

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Fire, earthquake... all we need now is flood and locusts. :ironic:

I think it hit while I was driving to a friend's house. He was on the phone when I got there, and soon I got a call on my cell from my aunt who lives in Minnesota. She asked me how I was, if I had felt the earthquake, and I was like, "huh?" I went back home to get something I had forgotten to bring, and my parents told me how they had immediately noticed, snatched up our dog, and gone under a coffee table. It's only big enough to fully protect the dog. :laughing: My parents said a couple books fell. I checked my room, and one of my Minimags had tipped over. I keep all my big Mags (2C, 2D, 4C, 3D, 4x4D) on the shelf right above the head of my bed... :eek:

So yeah, my aunt in Minnesota knew about it before I did. :whistle:
 

scott.cr

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One of the things we deal with living here in Cali...We are overdue for a quake here in Socal....:(

No kidding. I've sorta been freaking myself out with earthquake preps at the house. I was in my college dorm during the '94 Northridge quake and kept a 3D Maglite by the bed for just such emergencies, but it tipped and rolled away during the quake, so when my hand plopped out of bed to grab it, all I grabbed was air. (Lesson learned: Use the Maglite clips and clip the light somewhere.)

Phone service was completely down in Simi Valley where my folks live, so I drove home frantically after the sun came up. The 118 freeway was a MESS. A water main ruptured and flooded the area where the 210 and 118 freeways met. My folks' house got trashed but it was still standing... the biggest thing to fix was the water heater. It ripped away from the wall and full-pressure water was spraying out of the supply line, flooding the garage. We bought a flexible copper repair line for $100 from a neighbor (needless to say they did not continue to be friends with the neighbor after that).

Oh, and my car at the time was a busted-up 1964 Chevy Impala. I hit a crack in the freeway pavement (seemed to have been caused by the quake) and the impact knocked the transmission mount loose.

One learns a lot of hard lessons about preparedness and caution when thrust into a situation like that. I'm glad the northern Cali quake wasn't more severe.
 

gorn

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That gave us a good roll. It lasted a long time, probably close to a minute. But having lived here all my life it was just another roller. The best part of it was having my wife yell at me thinking I was messing with her.
 

vee

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I was on the phone speaking with my girlfriend (she's in union city) when she starts yelling "earthquake"! I didn't feel anything except a little rattling. My parents were upstairs & felt it way more than i did. I'm in s.f. and probably live on top of a big rock i guess. The 2nd thing on my mind after making sure everyone was safe, was hoping the power would go out & my boss would call me for doubletime to restore the power. Sounds greedy, but I got a lot of xmas presents to buy! Glad everyone is safe though!
 

Illum

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http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40204628.php

from the reports...the quakes pretty shallow, usually they are 100km or more
you think this is bad...imagine those guys in the Pagan region of the Northern Mariana Islands...a whopping 7.2
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007jdal.php

Fire, earthquake... all we need now is flood and locusts. :ironic:

funny you said that.... [well, not that funny:(] here in Florida we've been having high tide for about a week now, thats not the problem
we have rain and the water has no where to go, thats the problem...its better today, yesterday the yard was 2 feet under water [the house being 30 years old, the county drainage ditch is higher than the lot, so guess where the water went:ohgeez:]
frog population exploded, ants population exploded, mosquito population is getting there and so far no locusts

this is not a good year....CA burning, quakes, MI high unemployment with car assembly plants closing, GA drought, FL flood
 
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gadget_lover

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My buddy lives about 5 miles from the epicenter. He said there was a roll, then a sharp jolt that reminded him of an explosion, then more rolling/swaying. Nothing broken, nothing knocked off the shelf.

I'm 20 miles away, and it was just a roller for us.

It was an OK quake, not a great one.

Daniel
 

Bullzeyebill

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Lived in CA all my life. Happened to be in So CA during last two big quakes down there. 5.6 in CA is not that big of a deal except to some local TV staions. Now those hurricanes, and tornadoes east of CA would really freak me out.

Bill
 

Solstice

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We felt it lightly at my work in downtown SF. All of the tequila bottles on the shelves rattled against each other. A little freaky, but we were pretty far away from the center so it was pretty mild- I'm just scared that its a precurser for a bigger one.
 

uh1c

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Barely noticed it here. I thought my dog, sleeping against my desk chair, was having a 'running dream'. :D
 

edc3

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So who else felt this? Weren't you glad you had your flashlights, but slightly disappointed the power didn't go out?

Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing. Is it sick to look forward to power outages, enjoy Winter because of shorter daylight hours and to look forward to taking your kids trick or treating so you can play with your flashlights? :D

By the way, I was in Campbell when the quake hit and I felt it very strongly.
 

Sasquatch1985

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I dont want to seem wierd or anything, but earthquakes are nothing to be afraid of because they are one of those things that in the end we just cant control. Sure there is going to be a "big one" in the next 100 years, or the overdue high scale eruption of Mt Shasta or the reletively cataclysmic eruption of Long valley calderea (Like Yellowstone but 200 miles away) and those are just in California. Woring wont change a thing. So when the Earth decides to toss and turn my advice is to enjoy the ride.
Just remember, Earthquakes dont kill people... falling buildings kill people.
 

EVAN_TAD

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Lived in CA all my life. Happened to be in So CA during last two big quakes down there. 5.6 in CA is not that big of a deal except to some local TV staions. Now those hurricanes, and tornadoes east of CA would really freak me out.

Bill

That 5.6 was the most powerful quake up here since the 89 Loma Prieta quake, so I wouldn't call it 'not that big of a deal'.
 

Bullzeyebill

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I guess I should have said that this quake did, or would not have shaken me up. I did not feel this quake in my area. I was in Stockton CA at work, actually standing around in my boss's office after work, when the 89 shake occured. When it stuck I immediately felt ill, and had to sit down, not knowing why at the time. That shake was a big deal.

Bill
 

Sasquatch1985

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That 5.6 was the most powerful quake up here since the 89 Loma Prieta quake, so I wouldn't call it 'not that big of a deal'.

I hate to seem contradictory but 5.6 actually isn't that big of a deal. The fact is that 5.6 is just barely enough to cause minor damage. Remember that the scale of intensity is based on energy released and because the energy radiates out spherically it takes an exponentially larger increase to register a higher magnitude number.
Nonetheless it was kind of exciting.
 
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The_LED_Museum

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The only *MAJOR* earthquake I experienced was the ~7.0 earthquake near Seattle on Ash Wednesday 2001.

From one of my many websites, comes this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 10:54am Feb 28 2001, a magnitude 7.0 (later downgraded to 6.8) earthquake shook downtown Seattle. Although the structural integrity of my building does not appear to have been compromised, the interior of my home sustained virtual total damage.

The quake started as a single "thump", which I mistook for the roofers dropping a piece of machinery on the roof. Several seconds later, a north-to-south swaying motion became evident, which increased in intensity over the next 15-20 seconds. By this time, it was no longer possible for anybody in the building to stand unaided. The dominant sounds were those of breaking glass and large bangs & thumps from furniture, large appliances, and home electronics falling to the floor; and of doors banging back and forth. A loud slow rattling noise was also evident, along with various creaks, cracks, and groans from the building's structure itself. The sound of the elevator car slamming into the walls of the elevator shaft was also evident.

At around 30 seconds, the breaking glass and falling object noises became spaced farther apart as fewer and fewer objects remained upright. The water was thrown out of toliets and fishtanks (those which didn't come down), and hanging fixtures banged against walls or broke off the ceiling.
Finally, at approximately 40 seconds, the violent swaying subsided, and was pretty much gone around ten seconds after that.

A buzzing noise became evident after everything stopped moving. Three sources were located: a computer monitor soaked in water from the fishtank, an outlet strip shorting out from water entry, and the fishtank pump running dry after too much water was thrown out of the tank.
No other damage to live electrical systems was found.

Down the 3rd floor hall, I heard a toliet flush, and then the sound of splashing water and that of something being knocked over and breaking. Presumably, the toliet flooded and its owner was pawing through debris to find their plunger or some towels.

Structural damage to the building was limited to a fractured facade on the north wall (broken off at the roofline, but remained attached by its embedded rebar), numerous cracks on interior joints, several fractured & buckled cinderblock flooring plates on the surface of our outdoor rooftop courtyard, and several ceiling tiles in the lobby ruined by water running down from another busted can on the 4th floor.
 
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