Moderate Earthquake in Southern California

[The Cid]

I very nearly put this in General Chat, because we have a few forumites in the greater Los Angeles area.

Fortunately, no reports of major damage or injury in the 5.8 magnitude quake that hit Los Angeles today.

I hope everybody out there is doing alright and wasn't affected by it.

[Arres]

The center was a bout 20 miles SW of me. It was just a little rocking and rolling. I could see some minor injuries if you got caught under something I suppose. It's kind of a surreal experience. You look around at everyone in the room trying to verify that indeed the ENTIRE GROUND is shaking. Solid as a rock my ass...

[Terrene]

A binder fell off the ironing board.

[Martin Blank]

Rocks are quite solid. But that means they move when other, bigger rocks push against them.

I was in the car eating lunch at the time. My first thought was, "Earthquake! Cool!" My second thought was, "Dammit, we're going to have to check systems, which means my lunch is cut short." My third thought was, "Nope, this is big enough that they're going to evacuate." I ended up joining the evacuees because I had already pulled up the USGS site on my phone and had the numbers available. After about five minutes, I returned to eating my lunch.

[Arres]

You EVACUATED? After we determined there wouldn't be an after shock in the next 30 seconds or so we sat back down at our desks.

[Martin Blank]

Government facility. Even though we're build to withstand a magnitude 8 (the data center is critical infrastructure), safety protocols call for the building to be evacuated after earthquakes.

Ironically, I'm one of the searchers. Technically, it just means that I exit slower than everyone else, and I have to ensure that everyone in my area of responsibility either leaves or is able to get help. But I was outside, and I couldn't go in, so I ate lunch.