The 7.2 Easter Earthquake
The night before the earthquake, I had noticed the small swarm of 3.0 and 4.0 earthquakes near Guadalupe Victoria, in Mexico. I was watching that and noting the decrease in earthquakes over the past week for the rest of California. The average seemed to be 700+ a week and it dropped down to almost 500. I spoke with a co-worker at 7am about what I was observing and discussed Cerro Prieto, which is nearby.
Also during the course of the night, at work, I watched a mouse run across the parking lot and stop right at my feet, unaware that I was standing there. It sat there for a few moments, probably wondering if I saw it. I was fairly amused and tried to get a pic with my cellphone, but it was too dark. It eventually got tired of waiting to see what I was going to do and darted off to the side. Later still, I observed coyotes running through the parking lot on the security cameras.
When I got home, I went to sleep. I slept until 3:40pm when the quake started.
I believe what woke me up was that I was feeling some sort of vibration. I opened my eyes. I was facing my closet which had sliding glass doors. I could see the glass flexing. I rolled onto my back and looked at the rest of the room where I could see more items throughout the room shaking. A stack of paperwork inboxes were swaying, the lampshade was bapping the wall, and just everything in general seemed to be moving.
I sat up quickly and prepared to get to my feet. As I stood up, the shear wave hit and I felt the ground LIFT! That's the first time I ever felt anything like that. The earthquake literally "bounced" me out of bed. I took a couple of steps, getting to my computer. I was eager to post a message to Twitter. I know I should have ducked and covered, but after that initial jolt, I thought that would be it and that the earthquake would taper down from there.
It didn't. Even as my monitor turned on and I began typing, things were STILL shaking. It never stopped. It seemed to be lasting almost 45 seconds to a full minute.
Then, while at my desk, I felt another strong lift and drop motion.
I kept looking around the room, watching small items move and sway. After feeling that very strong lift a couple of times, I knew what I was feeling had to be a BIG earthquake and not just a moderate one. I began to worry that maybe I should take cover in case a third and more powerful jolt was coming, but it did finally taper off.
I remained at my computer, logging onto news networks, and I felt three aftershocks. The first was about 15 minutes later. The last one was the stronger of the three and it made things in my room shake visibly again.
It's now been 4 hours. I haven not felt anything more than those initial three aftershocks, but I know that we're due for more and I'm ready for it.
Let me tell you, that was the biggest earthquake I ever felt and with it being a 7.2, it'll probably be the biggest earthquake I'll feel for some time.
I'm okay, checked the house, no damage. Nothing even fell over. I'm miles and miles away from the epicenter, though, in Oceanside, California. I'm north of San Diego, along the coast, between San Diego and LA. Oddly enough, the power never flickered, but parts of LA lost power due to this quake.
I'll do my best to keep everyone posted if anything more happens, but things should be calming down a bit now.