In a post on Oct. 31st, I mentioned the Nisqually quake that occurred in the Pacific Northwest in 2001. It measured 6.8 on the Richter Scale and lasted for forty-five seconds. I was sitting at my desk, probably on Mudcat at the time it occurred (10:54 PST), and the four story 100 year-old frame and brick apartment building I live in started doing quite a little nervous-making jig. A few seconds later, it began to feel like the building was shaking itself like wet dog!!

About ten seconds into the quake, all the lights went out.

I'm in a wheelchair, and when it became obvious that this was going to last a bit (in circumstances like that, 45 seconds is one helluva lot longer than one would think!), I thought about getting out of the building. Then it occurred to me that I could find myself under a rain of bricks, so I wheeled into the doorway of our apartment—a doorway with it's surrounding frame being a fairly strong structure—and stayed there, hanging onto the door frame, until the rumbling and shaking slowly abated.

As I sat there assessing the situation, I heard two of my neighbors, Simon, and a new tenant whom I had not met before, coming downstairs. They planned on checking the building for structural damage, but Simon knew I would be home probably plugging away on the computer, so the first thing he wanted to do was make sure I was all right!

Bless you, Simon! Much appreciated!

About a hour later, the lights came back on (Seattle City Light got onto it right away). And other than a few cracks in the brickwork, which we've since had fixed, the old building had ridden out another one.

Don Firth

P. S. In any natural disaster, say, in an earthquake, since the firehouse may have collapsed on the trucks and aid cars, and the police may be trying to dig themselves out from under a pile of lumber and bricks, you can figure that you're going to be on your own for a bit. Do what needs to be done to prevent further damage—and check on you neighbors!