So before Irene trashes the area, I thought I should follow up with a report on this week's earthquake.
Yes, the DC area had an earthquake and a hurricane during the same week. Wow.
On Tuesday, I was sitting in my office, going about my usual business when I noticed a slight vibration in the floor. It really felt like a big truck was driving by, but it's not usually something you feel in an old-school, eight story, steel, concrete and plaster building. I got up and walked into the hall to see if anyone else was noticing it. No one was in the hall.
As I headed back into my office, I noticed that the trees outside were shaking wildly. My first thought was some big tornado was coming down the street, or some Independence Day-like wall of fire that would destroy everything. But behind those thoughts was the idea of a terrorist attack.
For ten years now we've been bombarded with the culture of terror. Terrorists lurk behind every tree, waiting to kill Americans in unimaginable ways if we don't invade foreign countries, wiretap Americans, torture captured foreigners, and imprison people forever without trial. So the idea that a man-made explosion was occurring, was in my mind. For a few seconds, my mind was filled with images of the ceilings above me pancaking down, crushing everything.
I walked back out into the hall and now many people were there, looking around. Suddenly, there was a BOOM and the building lurched. Actually lurched. Yikes.
But that was it. It was over pretty suddenly and we all stood around in a combination of awe and confusion.
Since 9/11, our agency has conducted frequent safety drills for both building evacuations and shelter-in-place scenarios. I'm a floor monitor so I got on my walkie-talkie and asked what was happening. The only other person on the line was another floor monitor and he didn't know anymore than I did.
A few seconds later the Executive Director came on the line and established that it was, indeed, an earthquake. We hadn't actually drilled for an earthquake but after a couple of minutes of confusion, we determined that we should evacuate the building, going to our safe gathering spot in the National Sculpture Garden, away from any buildings, in the event of aftershocks.
Strangely, they never pulled the alarms so many people didn't get the evacuation news, making for an oddly quiet emergency. I helped clear my floor, reported in, and was asked to make sure people were evacuating the fourth and fifth floors. I did this, clearing out dozens of people, and eventually reported to the Sculpture Garden, one of the last people out of the building. The cell phone systems were jammed so calls weren't possible, but I could send out very slow e-mail via Blackberry.
We all waited for about an hour before getting the all-clear to go back into the building. Everyone was allowed to go home if they chose. I let my people go and stayed until 5PM to accept public filings.
The damage to the building was minimal, the most obvious sign being a huge crack in one of the walls. I don't like the look of it at all.
Oh, wait. That's not it. Here it is.
And so that was my first earthquake experience. Now I sit on a Saturday afternoon. All our plans for today cancelled, just waiting for the power to go out.
Welcome Irene.
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