Earthquakes

I was trying to get a little sleep after being up late packing for a trip to Geogia. I had a very early flight out of Anchorage so I set my alarm clock and fell asleep. The alarm went off about 3 am or so and of course I turned it off and decided I could sleep for a few more minutes.

Sometimes if it's quite you can hear a quake before you feel it. Before I could drift back into sleep I heard the rumble and seconds later everything started to shake. OK Mother Earth, I get the message, I'm getting out of bed. Thank you for the wake-up call.

Another time I was in a grocery store and had just started down one of the aisles when the quake hit. When that happens just get out of the aisle and watch, from a safe distance, as things start falling.

In 1994 Steve and I were living in Northern California in the city of Eureka. Steve had taken a job with the County of Humboldt and I was working a couple of part time jobs. We were living in our motor home at the local KOA to save money. Even with both of us working money was tight but we liked living in the peaceful park like setting.

Like Anchorage, earthquakes are a part of life there. I remember on day I was in the motor home on the phone with someone from Portland, OR. While we were talking I mentioned to here that I was feeling an earthquake. She got all excited and started yelling that I should do something, did I need to get off the phone and "do something"? The quake was long gone by the time I got her to calm down.

The one I remember best was the day after Christmas about 6 am and since neither of us had to work that day we were sleeping. We had both been having shoulder problems and had decided to sleep in separate beds so we could stretch out a little more and see if that would help ease the shoulder pain. Steve was sleeping in the overhead bunk up at the front of the motorhome.

Waking up suddenly to loud noises and a moving bed is disorienting to say the least. I remember hearing a loud and consistant banging sound, then I realized the motorhome was shaking. Steve had jumped out of bed and was yelling something. The room was dark and that added to the confusion. By the time we figured out what was going on it was over.

I looked up the report from that quake so I would have the facts straight.
The December 26, 1994 Eureka earthquake was a magnitude 5.3 - 5.4 and located 12 miles WSW of Eureka at a depth of about 11 miles. This quake was the largest earthquake to occur within a 15 mile radius of Eureka since 1932 and it produced the most damage in the Humboldt Bay region since the 1954 magnitude 6.5 earthquake which was centered about 12 miles NE of Arcata. Damage estimates from the quake were in excess of $5,000,000. A State of Emergency was declared by the Governor.