Well guess what? It happened again. Another quake felt here in southern California. I was out enjoying my afternoon yesterday in Temecula, California and then it hit… The ground started swaying and it got stronger, lasting about 45 seconds. I didn’t panic, although my girlfriend did (heh heh). We were indoors and got the hell outside.

Standing under the glorious sunshine about a minute after the ground rolling stopped, I told her: “I bet this is a big one from somewhere else…” Instinctively, I felt it was a large quake with an epicenter further away. I guess I just get better at calling these with all of the quakes I have experienced as a resident of southern California (with my first encounter in 1986).

I was in a store when the quake happened. Everything was rattling and rocking. My girlfriend and I got outside in a hurry. I don’t like the idea of something falling on my head from twenty feet above me; and there were fixtures and ceiling constituents which could have easily done so. I took out my Blackberry and went to http://earthquake.usgs.gov (you get to know this address when you live in southern California). It’s the U.S. Geological Survey site with up to the minute seismic activity. Sure enough, there was a gigantic square on their earthquake map, meaning a very large quake just occurred. The image to the left is from USGS’s site a day later, with the large square sitting below smaller squares (the aftershocks).

No one was hurt here in California, but sadly to say, two residents of Mexico did die as an apparent result of the quake. There have been numerous aftershocks I haven’t felt since the quake (thankfully). There is an uneasiness to feeling the entire earth moving beneath you. I don’t recommend it to anyone. You feel so “Not in control.” It leaves your nerves frayed and days after, when you hear any rumbling noises like a dump truck driving by or a plane overhead, you instantly think it’s another quake. Sigh…

This post re-emphasizes my point from an earlier post: I need to get the hell outta southern California.

Road in Mexicali after the 7.2 Quake