Wednesday, June 23, 2010

world stop moving. you are making me nauseous.

you would think i could have taken a photo during the big ottawa earthquake of 2010. i mean i had two cameras on me.

nope.

all i could think was that i needed to get the baby and me out of that building ( a swaying st. laurent centre ) as fast as possible.

and of course, we know now, that in terms of earthquakes, while it was big for here...it was not all that serious.
which begs the question...what would have happened if it had been of a catastrophic size? or if it had been some other horrible accident that enveloped the whole area?we are not ready for that. not one bit.
maybe you never are...

i had a sick feeling immediately( which apparently may have been caused by the earthquake as others, as far away as waterloo in the cubicles of RIM, have expressed having had that same seasick sensation).
the walls moving and the dust dropping from the ceiling tiles likely helped that sensation along.
unlike the majority of people around me, i did not stand still and wonder what was going on...i started moving the heck out of there.

part of it was curiousity...wondering if i could get a better handle on what had happened from outside...but part of it was really, really, really not wanting to spend my last few moments in a mall. how depressing would that have been?
and in the black's store to boot.
somewhat of a fitting end actually...

there was no rush to the doors, no panic, no overhwelming sense of fear...i overheard one woman with her two school age children ask the laura secord woman if she could possibly scoop the ice cream a little faster.

um. okay.

before i reached the exit, my son was already on the phone with me, asking what he should do...the house swayed and he got really nervous when the bedroom fan started swinging around. i told him to get outside and sit tight...that was as helpful as i could be. which is frantic making when you are a parent.

between twitter ( justinvl wins for the BEST tweet of the day, post earthquake ) and CFRA (no satellite for me in times of duress, talk radio is the only way to go), i made it home wiser and calmer...
but i still drove over and under the highway with held breath;).
i mean...an earthquake!
wtf???
this is ottawa;).

all said, it looks like cornwall did not feel it anywhere near as badly as other areas.
long sault did...so how could cornwall, a mere 11 kilometres away not? hubby barely registered the seismic action and my dd's school noted it as "something happening" but no speacial measures were taken at all. the talent show rehearsals took place as planned  (nothing as insignificant as a potential natural disaster could interefere with the end of year talent show...)

these earthquakes are amazing things.
glad to have experienced it, glad to not have to again, hopefully.

and you? everyone doing okay;)?

4 comments:

Finola said...

It was such a strange thing, wasn't it.
At my building no one knew what to do and it made me realize that we are just not prepared for earthquakes here.

emilybean said...

same reaction, in a govt building. I, however, was out of there at lightning speed. felt like the building was coming down.

Capital Mom said...

I am so not ready for anything worse. But now I want to be.

Natasha said...

It was definitely an experience. It was my first earthquake and it was pretty scary. This was my experience http://shophaven.ca/2010/06/a-mid-week-shake-up/. I am glad you made it out of St. Laurent okay.