I work in the Pentagon half the day then a Crystal City/Arlington office over right off 1. Friggin' terrifying. I lived in Jersey for 20 years before moving down here so earthquakes are totally foreign. When you're walking around a 15 story building and you start shaking all kinds of crap goes through your mind. Not fun at all.

But...we got the rest of the afternoon off and grabbed a few drinks down the street...so all's well that ends well.

earthquakes and hurricanes
 

here in CA, earthquakes are fairly common but 5.8 is still strong no matter where....the 6.9 in 1989 was one I will not soon forget....the cars bouncing up and down, the power lines swinging fiercely from side to side.....and southern California had a few bad ones in the last 20 years also.......but I if I was living on the east coast, I would be much more concerned about the hurricane coming your way....NY for instance is way overdue for a major hit (the last minor ones were in 1985 and 1991, the last big one in 1938).....good luck Barry, I hope it misses you....Bruce Perry

Hi Bruce- we're expecting some heavy rains from hurricane Irene this weekend, but don't know how bad it will be. The path of a hurricane is hard to predict.

Glad everyone survived...welcome to the tremor club. :D

I was living at my parent's house when the 1989 San Francisco quake (Loma Prieta) hit just as game 1 of the World Series was starting. Being an SF native I'm used to quakes and invariably just ride them out and don't bother to "duck and cover." But about 5 seconds into that one I realized it was a completely different animal, and decided that I'd much rather be outside than in my room. As I ran out the door of my room toward the stairs this hall bookcase (see photo), which was bolted to the wall, and if your scoring at home is 11 feet high and 12 feet long, ripped out of the wall and collapsed - like a tree falling- right in front of me. Missed me by about 2 feet. If I'd decided to run one second earlier - well, not good.

hope everyone is okay. My family on the coast said it was scary,but not too bad

Just want to wish everyone along the east coast a safe weekend and hopefully a little bit of luck. I have an apartment in the city and a house on Long Island to deal with, so I'm doubly concerned. It's going to be rough sailing but we'll all get through it.

An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week. Who woulda thunk it?

Stay safe Barry...best wishes from across the Sound...

I was just 7 years old when the whittier earthquake hit in '87. I was in old town Pasadena eating breakfast at rosie's diner when it hit. A lot of buildings there were old and made of brick with no reinforcement... I watched the top floor of a five story building collapse sideways on a gas station before I had a chance to duck and cover. I don't care how many you live through, you'll never get used to it.

Thanks Matt. Guess it's heading your way too. Batten the hatches (that's assuming you have hatches).

i just found a photo online that shows the building and damage... I'll never forget the quote on top of the building... I remember the damage different though, maybe it was not a gas station...

http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/u...81fba4986c.jpg

Barry, the building my folks live in NY was built in the 1840's so they were kinda scared... Especially after seeing the same thing I saw in '87 (I assume)

Matt- you don't usually see buildings in California built in the 1840's, that's pretty unusual. And that's a lot of damage.:(

I was referring to my Dad's place in Chelsea when I said 1840's... I must have not been clear. The photo is of a building I watched crumble during an earthquake when I was a kid.

Actually you were clear...I read it too quickly. Sorry.

Are you near Irene Barry? I just talked to my Dad, I guess there were evacuations two blocks from where he lives. My girlfriend's sister was evacuated and she lives in Brooklyn. I also know that my pops can't go to his office...

Some parts of Brooklyn are being evacuated, those areas that are closest to sea level. I'm in Cobble Hill which is not in that danger zone. But we may still get walloped tomorrow, who knows. It's dark right now with intermittent rain. The storm won't be intensifying until during the night. We shall see.

Board up the windows if you can Barry, I can't convince my Dad to. I do, however; have an unreasonable fear of broken glass, which stems from the Northridge quake of '94.

I have storm windows, that's the best I can do. Thanks for the well wishes.

How are folks faring today? No power for me in Boston now, and we had a lot of water in the basement earlier. Thank God nothing of value was near there, although I may now finally have reason to get rid of about 25,000 (now waterlogged) late 80s commons...

Hang in there, Barry!
 

Irene's really made a mess all the way up to Cape Cod, but we are in Framingham and got mostly high winds and bursts of heavy rain.

I hope you are ok, Barry, and all our friends up and down the coast.

All my thoughts and prayers go out to you all!

Your Friend,

Bill Hedin

Where I live we were very lucky. We had a lot of rain during the night but no flooding. The winds weren't as strong as expected and no trees or large branches came down around here. The rain stopped a while ago and just in the last hour the winds picked up to maybe 30 or 40 MPH gusts. I know some people were flooded but we dodged a bullet.

Minor League Stadium
 

Thought I'd share this picture I found of the local minor league park after the storm

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...pictureid=4457

DJ

Damn DJ, that does not look good! I know 732 is New Jersey - what team / stadium is that?

Scott, it is TD Bank Ballpark (Somerville Patriots) in Bridgewater NJ

DJ

Looks like their season is over...that's a lot of water.