Loud growling, undulating floors and walls, creaking and groaning ceilings - I wondered when it would stop and I prayed. I hung on for dear life in an inside doorway, waiting for whatever was to be. The waving motion continued on for a while, the outside plant containers swung back and forth for seven minutes and the mini-blind wands swung back and forth for at least an hour afterward.
Ash Wednesday Earthquake, Washington State, 2001.
I soon noticed a still silence. After I collected my thoughts I went outside and looked at the exterior of our house. All the damage we sustained was hairline cracks in our foundation. We were lucky. Others were not.
My neighbors and I exchanged quick greetings - everyone okay. And amazingly enough I lost no glassware in the quake. On the “bumps” things bumped up and down, but no glass what broken. Books scattered, but they were on bookcases facing the opposite way of the oscillation, so they were mostly spared. One neighbor had a light crash to the floor. Most of the homes here are wood-structure, so they stand up well in an earthquake. Thank goodness.
As the power restored in one-half hour I was able to see live photos on local television – until that time I listed to folks calling in with their individual stories on the radio, some were pretty shaken. The television seemed to be the medium for quick views, but I think radio and the Internet were the communication routes most open to folks. Phone lines were tied up. The quake occurred at 10:58 a.m. and it was evening before all my family could finally call. I emailed concerned relatives across the country. Still getting emails from concerned friends.
The overall remarkable thing about this earthquake: there was only one death attributed to the quake due to a heart attack. But the numbers are in the hundreds for injuries.
So what really happened? The quake registered in the same area as the 1949 quake when the Juan de Fuca plate moved under Puget Sound near Anderson Island. Thanks to it being 33-feet down, we were spared what could have been a disastrous situation.
Though national newscasts make it look like a major disaster (and I’m not saying it wasn’t in places), this quake was relatively mild - seismic upgrades and retrofitting of buildings to an area with an earthquake history saved the day. We were also saved from a drought that has plagued Washington State this year. The ground was not normally as wet, so the damage was considerably less than it could have been. The photo's a street in Olympia the morning after the quake.
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