first earthquake of my life - 5.0 in Ottawa
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Malcolm was besides me in the office, and we were debugging my Java code when the first tremor occurred. I could feel the ground shaking and everything around me moving, and it lasted for around 3 seconds. I looked at Malcolm, and was wondering, "WTF just happened?". Actually, it never even occurred to me that that this was an earthquake. Sitting opposite us was another lady, and she looked shocked too.Then another 3 seconds later, the second tremor took place, and it was so much stronger and longer this time. I think I could remember this scene for life. I was looking at her, and I could see everything around her oscillating. I was still shocked and didn't react at all. However, she looked so horrified. I swore I had never seen anyone looking so scared before. She looked at both of us and then dashed to the emergency exit. At this moment, I heard someone shouting, 'Let's run', and so I followed Malcolm and ran to the emergency exit, and quickly left the building since we were at the 1st storey.
Many people were already outside the building. Once outside, I started wondering whether the whole building would collapse onto us =s We could see people who lived in nearby houses getting out of their homes too. A colleague came to us and remarked that this was the 1st time he experienced such a strong tremor after living in Ottawa for 20 years . I wondered whether I was a jinx since I had only been in Ottawa for 6 weeks.
Looking back, I think that it was more scary to see terrified expressions, and people panicking to run to the emergency exit than the actual shaking of the walls and tables. David and Malcolm told me that they were taught earthquake drills during their high schools in Vancouver. Apparently, Vancouver lied on one of the tectonic plates, and experts predicted that there will be a very bad earthquake in Vancouver in the near future. Singapore schools never taught us any earthquake drills we never ever had any. They commented that rushing to the emergency exit was probably a bad idea. However, it also doesn't seem like a good idea to hide under the desks too since they looked pretty fragile.
And it was disturbing to realise that we could neither send any text messages nor call any people on our cell phones after the tremors. Twitter was down too! Since no cable was destroyed, the network was down probably due to the drastic increase in users. This really showed that in a real disaster, the likelihood of being able to contact your loved ones is extremely low. It took about 2 hours after the tremors for the network to resume operations.
I also asked around friends in Montreal and apparently, most of them didn't feel anything and some just noticed a slight tremor. The most funny thing is that a friend from civil engineering was giving a presentation on 'risks of earthquakes' when she felt the tremor. Lol. And on Twitter, the funniest tweet was "Quebec is finally separating?". Lol.
So lesson of the day: remember to check out the nearest emergency exit the next time I enter an unfamiliar building.
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http://www.calgarysun.com/news/canada/2010/06/23/14492376.html#/news/canada/2010/06/23/pf-14488986.html
A 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck the Ottawa area at 1:41 p.m., sending thousands of people rushing into the streets from homes and public buildings.
The quake hit was felt as far west as Woodstock, Ont., and as far east as Chicoutimi, Que., but the epicentre appears to have about 30 km north of Buckingham, Que. -- roughly 100 km from Ottawa.
City Hall, the courthouse and all of the buildings in the parliamentary precinct were evacuated.
Schools have also been evacuated.
Sirens could be heard across downtown as people milled in the streets, but early indications were that there has been no major damage.
A chimney collapsed at 112 Lisgar St. after the quake.
There are several reports of power outages.
Toronto and London were also affected.
Among the many buildings evacuated in the seconds following the quake was Centrepointe Theatre, where more than 200 St. Pius X students were hosting their Grade 12 graduation. The theatre rocked violently several times, then continued rumbling for about 10-12 seconds.
The building fire alarms went off, and the building was immediately evacuated.
"That will make this one memorable," said grad Jamie Wilcox, 17, as he and classmates milled about in the parking lot.
Workers from the adjacent City of Ottawa building also spilled into the streets but no damage was evident. There were also no injuries reported.
City Hall, the courthouse and all of the buildings in the parliamentary precinct were evacuated. Schools have also been evacuated.
Sirens could be heard across downtown as people milled in the streets, but early indications were that there has been no major damage.
A chimney collapsed at 112 Lisgar St. after the quake.
The quake was also felt across the border in Buffalo and Albany, N.Y.
“The planes in our hangar were tilting back and forth, blast doors and hangar doors were chattering with force and the ground rippled under our feet noticeably,” said Levy Morris in an e-mail from the Ottawa airport. “Our building was evacuated for 30 minutes while it was checked for safety concerns.”
“Here in Embrun in the Township of Russell, my whole house shook, pictures were banging and things were moving around. It was so loud I thought the wash machine had an unbalanced load of clothes in it, but when I checked it wasn't even on. It was really scary,” wrote John Gervais.
This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
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