I was raised in California, and have swayed to atleast 20 earthquakes so far. We have even experienced a much larger earthquake about 15 years ago when we were on vacation renting a beach house in Capistrano.
This one was different from all the rest. This one, if you can believe it, was our "funny earthquake".
As a family we rented a beach house in Newport for the week. On Tuesday morning the fog still hovered over the ocean, so we stayed in and started watching the movie "Oceans 13". There is a part in the movie where they create an earthquake to get people to leave the Casino. The first attempt is a small rumble, and no one takes the situation seriously. Then Brad Pitt says something like "Do it again and hit it harder!" The Casino really starts to shake on the TV. At that very moment the beach house started to roll from side to side. Our entire family sat calmly and didn't take our eyes off the TV. For the first few seconds we didn't recognize we were in a real earthquake! My son in law was in the kitchen and shouted "What is wrong with you guys?!!! We're in the middle of an Earthquake!!"
It seemed like the beach house rolled back and forth for atleast 30 seconds. After it stopped, we all looked at each other and burst out laughing. My 16 year old son looked at me and said "I'm so confused!" Another comment was "That was the best special effects from a movie I've ever experienced!"
The epicenter of the earthquake was in Chino Hills, just 25 miles from Newport Beach. With a magnitude of 5.4, very little damage occured. Other than losing cell phone coverage for about 1/2 hour, we didn't experience any problems. We didn't even feel the 90 or so aftershocks that supposedly came within the next few hours. The sun soon came over the ocean and we were relaxing in our beach chairs watching the waves. We figured the waters edge, instead of indoors, was one of the safest places to be in case another one hit. That was until our good friend Ray said "Unless a tsunami hits". Oh thanks Ray!
3 comments:
Ok Nedra, I was also raised in California, but somehow can recognize a "movie" earthquake from a "real" earthquake. Remind not to be with you when the "big one" hits, OK? (Unless it's a quilt show, then I'm game!)
Oh Nedra - That IS a funny earthquake story! Glad it was harmless for you and yours, and hope you had a blast the rest of the time you were there. Can't wait till you get back to blogging on a regular basis! Welcome home!
Very funny stories. Loved that the earthquake happened during the movie earthquake. Hows that for coincidence!!
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