On this date... 2001

[susandennis]

I was working at a start up across the street. As I made my 1/2 block commute early that morning, I saw several plate glass windows broken and not even boarded up yet. The annual Mardi Gras celebration in my neighbourhood had broken into riots and one guy had been killed. It was really horrible. (And the last Mardi Gras celebration here.)

It was otherwise, a regular day until 10:54. I was on the top floor of a 100 year old building that started rocking and rolling big time.

Earthquake registering 6.8 on Richter Scale jolts Seattle and Puget Sound on February 28, 2001.

My webpage from that day with some photos is still up. One of the photos on this page is a far away view of the photo above (which I just found on a city data site).

Most people had no damage at all. There was one fluff head at work who did have to replace her bathroom floor because the quake knocked a basket of died fake flower potpouri off the back of the toilet AND water splashed out and soaked it all. By the time she got home, her bathroom floor was stained irreparably. She pissed and moaned and whined about that eveyr day for a month.

There's a small dent in my kitchen sink and a crack in the bathroom floor tile that remind me of that day but I think I'd probably remember even without them.

Comments

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget it! I was brushing my teeth when it started. Stacks of my CDs fell over, and a few things broke in my kitchen. I remember how LOUD it was, just the sound of the walls moving was horrible. It felt like the building was going to fall over. Then it all ended and I noticed my toothbrush was in the toilet.

[susandennis]

Funny, I don't remember the sound other than the old building creaking. It was memorable though for sure!

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget it! I can't believe it was 16 years ago though!

[slinkslowdown.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn, I remember hearing about that quake. But I was only 11 when it happened and it was one of only 3 years I didn't live in the PNW, so I wasn't in it.

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

:o

Scary!

Is that Zoey in the pic, and who else?

And the wine was okay.

[susandennis]

Zoey's only about 8 years old so no Zoey was back then!

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I had actually left early that morning on my way down to a conference in Utah... I'd stopped at my Aunt's place about Noon, Mountain time (so it was around 11:00 here, not long at all after the quake had hit) and borrowed her phone to try calling my husband to check in (this was before I got my first cellphone). I was a bit puzzled by the weird, fast busy signal for his office number, but didn't think much of it. I figured I'd borrow my aunt's computer (with dial-up!) to check my email really quickly and then try calling him again. You can imagine my shock when her portal page popped up with the bold headline "Earthquake Rocks Seattle!"

Suddenly, the fast busy signal made sense. I got my aunt's permission and installed ICQ on her computer, logged in there and felt a bit better when I saw that my husband was still logged in (so his work computer still had power and was on), but still couldn't reach him. Fortunately, I had a few of his co-workers added there, so I pinged them and one eventually answered that he was okay and was just down the hall, then went to tell him to get on his computer. Phones were still out, but we were able to chat in ICQ.

Apparently, he nearly got smashed by his monitor... the building he was in at Microsoft was one of the ones where the floors were suspended on cables, so they were designed to *move* in earthquakes (rather than collapsing). It meant that they'd really gotten shaken... and his monitor (a huge CRT) was on a movable arm that kept swinging out to where he was standing in the doorway, and he kept pushing it away, really worried that the monitor would topple off onto him.

Have you ever seen the footage from one of Microsoft's computer labs? https://youtu.be/q7boO_wTzS4

I also found this one, which I'd never seen before from KIRO: https://youtu.be/LQX6-kqriRY

[howeird]

I missed it - moved back to california a year before. My folks' fireplace fell apart, bricks all over the livingroom floor. FEMA finally paid for repairs months later.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I don't have an earthquake story of my own but my college friend Chrissie is Greek and was living in Athens when they had an earthquake. As we are going back many years now she wrote me an actual letter to tell me about it and said that when she woke up and her bed was shaking her first thought wasn't earthquake but poltergeist!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I was in Seattle on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre. It was our first day on stage for "1776" and blocking rehearsals had just begun. The director was in the balcony when the stage started moving sideways under my feet. (I was the only one already blocked.) Steve yelled "Oh Shit!" and dove under some seats. I ran out the side door with others in the wings with pieces of ceiling coming down. The earthquake delayed our opening by one night. Nets were put up to protect audiences from falling plaster. The 5th has since been retrofitted. It was frightening. I also remember no one local could get through on their cell phones. My first calls were from my parents in Texas and my friend Tim in San Francisco. Now, when we speak of the 6.8 earthquake and our show, we refer to it as 1776.8! LOL!