I joked about that with my mom: how very much our world has changed. We were all so relived to learn that it was "only" an earthquake.
I was in my classroom getting ready for school to start (we don't start till after Labor Day.) My entire room shook (I'm on the 2nd floor) and binders fell off their shelves. My first thought was "earthquake" but then I thought there was NO way it would be that strong here. (In Va....) Then my coworker came running into my room and said it def. was an earthquake! (I thought maybe they were working on the roof since school hasn't started yet.) I tried calling my bf and our cell phones wouldn't work...when I left school it took FOREVER to get home since the government shut down early and everyone was on their way home. (it literally took me almost 2 hours..(i live about 45 min. from my work))
Here, if they feel the school needs to be evacuated, we go to the football field or another clear area and parents need to pick up from there.
Having slept through the 1952, 7.7 Kern County earthquake in California, I find the hullabaloo over a 5.9 back east kind of funny
At my HS, the evacuation plan for was to go to the elementary school across the football field. The fire drill had us walk all the way around the school, then up the road leading to the school.
Yeah, except parents were picking up you their children as a knee-jerk reaction at my school. And I work at an intensive charter school with longer than normal hours to ensure our scholars are able to remedy their deficits. So not a good reason for parents to pick up their children, especially when our school was completely intact and our administrators were communicating this to the parents.
I can see being afraid of aftershocks, particularly since we're not used to earthquakes. We have 180 days of school; I can absolutely understand being willing to trade off one afternoon to ensure that my kids were safe. People around here are afraid of being stuck in a building that could collapse during a crisis. I think that, given our recent history, it's a totally rational fear.
Good point. Guess I'm just used to working through anything and what I consider normal is not really normal.
"Normal" is a funny word, isn't it? It all depends on what has brought us to this place. We're still on vacation, so it was a non-issue. The girls were with Peter and Brian was with me, so I knew everyone was safe. But the 2 sisters who were evacuated called mom right away to check in. (that's how we found out about the earthquake.) And both were still on the ground floor, even though the "all clear to return" message had been given at both workplaces. But again, we all now know that "all clear" doesn't always mean "safe to return."
On the Today show today, Ann had a good giggle over the fact that people were told to evacuate their buildings when in reality, (she grew up in CA) you're supposed to hide under a desk/table or stand in a doorway because more injuries occur from going outside during an earthquake.
I dint know how long you have lived around DC, but there have been times were "reasonable" can easily turn into hours and hours if trying to get home. I would have picked my child up early if at all possible.
I've lived in the area for about 5 years and am one of the unfortunate ones that has a looooong commute from DC to MD. Most of the scholars at my school live in the neighborhood or very close by so traffic wasn't the reason they picked them up early. But I can see others points about the safety of buildings and whatnot after the earthquake as a reason to pick up children from school; it's just never been my reality.
The new thing is to get out AND AWAY from buildings, under the desk is concidered as bad as not doing anything It is also said that under a doorway is the best if you can not get out & away and that NEXT to a desk or piece of furniture is better than under because it creates a void where under it just collapses on you
Was it the Northridge quake where that apartment building telecoped? You could have driven right by it and not known that it was originally a 3 story building; it looked like an undamaged 2 story building. I'll take my chances outdoors.
The new thing isn't necessarily such a good idea: see http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/triangle.asp.
Yep, it was Northridge. That was also the quake where part of the freeway collapsed on the police officer. It was very sad and pretty scary.
