I woke up this morning to find out that another earthquake had occurred where I was for the fourth time this YEAR!!! Now as you already know, I am originally from Pennsylvania and currently reside in the Baltimore/DC area - obviously I am not used to earthquakes effecting my every day life....EVER! I’ve always read about them in the news but that is about as close as I have ever come to dealing with them personally. Apparently mother nature decided that 2010 would be the year of earthquakes for me.
My first earthquake experience of 2010 was probably the one that shook me up the most (although not literally). Back on February 26th, I was one of 26 students from the Loyola MBA program along with 2 professors, who flew from BWI airport to head to Chile for a 10 study abroad trip. We had a small layover in Dallas but eventually we were in the air and on our way to Chile (5 days in Santiago and 3 days in Viña del Mar). We had spent a whole semester learning everything there was to know about Chile - the history, culture, politics, weather, you name it! We had site visits planned at various companies (ie: Johnson & Johnson, GM, Codelco, Undurraga, etc) throughout the 10 days. As a group, we could not be any more excited to be going on this trip. Mid-way through our flight (we were over Ecuador) we heard the pilot come on to talk to us. He told us that there was a “substantial earthquake” and that we were being rerouted to Miami. After spending 30+ hours in airports, on planes, in more airports and on more planes, we finally made it back to Baltimore without ever seeing Chile.
Now obviously this situation could have been a lot worse. If we had landed 3 hours earlier or the earthquake had waited 3 more hours to occur it would have been a disaster. We all just sat in the airports (in between our many flights home) and watched the footage being shown on TV. It was unbelievable. As devastated as we all were to not be sitting in Chile, we were all very grateful for being home and safe. We were all very lucky.
About a month later I went on a short vacation to Los Angeles, California with a friend. I had joked with him about the possibility of there being an earthquake while we were there - he thought I was nuts. Lo and behold, on our fourth day there Mexico gets hit with a 7.2 earthquake and we felt it while we were sitting outside for lunch in Laguna Beach. This was the first time I had ever experienced an earthquake first hand. It was very strange and at first I honestly didn’t realize what was going on until I heard someone say “it’s an earthquake”. For anyone that has never experienced an earthquake before - to me it felt like I was on a carnival ride. It was a very weird sensation but kind of neat all at the same time (of course I was lucky and in an area where there was no damage so I was able to “enjoy” it as opposed to panic.) Can one really “enjoy” an earthquake?
Less than a month ago I felt another earthquake...while at work...in Maryland. (This was a result of the 5.0 earthquake that hit Canada - yes we felt it down here.) I was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden I felt my chair move. The funny thing is I didn’t really think too much of it because I tend to move around a lot during the day and my chair is on wheels. Then all of a sudden my desk started to shake and I paused. Eventually everything stopped shaking and very confused I turn to my boss and say “was that an earthquake?” Again, keep in mind that this is Maryland we’re talking about! Earthquakes do not occur here! Or so I thought.
This morning at 5:04 am a 3.6 magnitude earthquake hit Rockville, MD. Apparently my neighbors felt it - I personally slept through it. Either way, I am in shock at how many earthquakes have been occurring around me this year. Apparently my friends all find this amusing too since I have been mentioned in many Facebook status updates today. Apparently I now go hand-in-hand with earthquakes.
I personally hope that I don’t have to deal with any more earthquakes this year - or if I do, I keep getting as lucky as I have been. It is very strange though to have gone so long in my life without ever experiencing once and then all of a sudden, 4 within 6 months. That always seems to be the way though, right?
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