OK, I know you West Coast types are probably laughing your asses off at us East Coasters, but here goes. . .
I was sitting in class, on the 8th floor of an office building downtown after lunch. Normally, at about 1:30 PM, the food coma from lunch sets in and I’m a little sleepy and sometimes I actually fall asleep in class. Not today, though, because I was actually doing a bit of multitasking during class and that was keeping me awake.
(A picture out the window of our classroom, for perspective. This picture was NOT taken today!):
So, when I felt the floor shaking at first, it was just a gentle thing, lasting more than just a few seconds. I automatically listened for the sound of a cart rolling heavy equipment down the hall. When I heard nothing of the sort, I started looking around, thinking, “Someone must be shaking the table here. . .” Towards the end of the first rumble, when I began to realize that the shaking was going on a bit too long without any explanation other than I might be having a stroke, I turned to my classmate and asked, “Do you feel that?”
(My “desk” in class, top center area shows my mini computer. . .):
Now, the classmate I asked is originally from our area, but he had lived out in LA for about 5 years before moving back here just before our program started. So he just answers, “Yeah, that kind of felt like an earthquake” and then that was it. So at least I knew I wasn’t crazy. . .
Then the building really started shaking and swaying, I knew something wasn’t right because I felt my face start flushing and I just yelled, “Oh my God, is the whole building moving!?” Right after I said that, the instructor snapped her laptop shut and said “OK, we’re getting out of here, get your valuables take the stairs down.”
I thought it might take forever to get down to the ground floor, but I actually got down pretty quickly despite the bad knee. Once I was outside, people were just everywhere!!!
And it wasn’t long before the news helicopters and news crews showed up (I thought I had a better picture than this one, if you squint you can see the camera):
The best thing? I saw double-decker tour bus driving through the streets as everyone was streaming out of the buildings. I wonder if they thought it was a flash mob of business people!
Of course, I couldn’t get a call out once we were out of the building. Someone from class finally got confirmation that it was an earthquake, 5.8 around D.C.
We got out of classes early – some good news, I suppose. I’m still a little bit overexcited from the day, but at least the trains were still running so I could get home!
