Quake in Queens: Living the News
I’ve experienced a city-wide blackout, five-foot snowstorms, knee-high floods and even the megaburst last summer (most of these in Queens, mind you).
And in fact, just finished cleaning the basement from the mini flood caused by the Wizard of Oz-like summer storm Friday night. Didn’t quite make it to my “office” corner of the basement, and didn’t lose anything except the rug. We’ve seen worse floods, but it’s the first one in a few years, since we put the zip drain in…so it was a drag.
But today was my first earthquake. I was in the kitchen, talking to Neil on the phone, leaning against the kitchen counter when it started bumping against me. “Neil something weird is happening. The counter is moving and the door is swaying. Maybe the neighbor’s construction?” Felt like I was on a sailboat…lasted about 15 seconds. We joked that maybe the deli guy put something weird in my sandwich. Or that I needed to cut back the caffeine. Told him I’d get back online and see if anything happened (because if it’s not online, it’s not real, right? Very Matrix.)
Neil called right back, said put NY1 on, it’s all over the news. NY1 did a great job covering the local story (their website did not…no mention of the earthquake except a Twitter stream module, even 10–15 minutes later). And of course was simultaneously “watching” Twitter. (#earthquakenyc? nope…not just NYC. #earthquake.) So I switched over to CNN, to see how far this quake stretched.
Tweeted myself (“don’t have run reflex down, gotta work on that.” #earthquake) and watched the West Coast-East Coast jokes unfold. A bit too soon to be funny, until we know that Virginia is OK.
Then I checked to see who had the news & how they were covering. NYTimes.com had the disaster banner across the top — no story. WSJ.com linked to the USGS site and to #earthquake — an interesting approach (disclaimer: I’ve worked for both websites).
My sister emailed to say she took off right away, evacuated her office, and was a “wimp.” I called & told her no such thing, in this city. And to be ready for any aftershocks. Hoped her high heels weren’t very high, today…time to put the flats back in the office drawer. Said I’d call Mom&Dad and tell them we were OK.
(Of course, TV reporter now explains: evacuating buildings isn’t the proper protocol. Need to duck under sturdy desks or door frames. East Coast folks, we don’t know the drill.)
Structural damage to the National Cathedral has been confirmed…3 of the 4 pinnacles in central tower have fallen. That’s one of my favorite buildings in D.C…loved to drive past when I lived there. Went to Easter Mass there once and it was breathtaking. National Monument may be tilting…hopefully a false rumor. But thankfully there are no reports, yet, of serious injuries or fatalities.
Time to switch over and watch the Tripoli coverage. That’s the real story today.
Other thoughts: it’s time to get that “emergency plan” together — seems silly until a bizarre day like today. And write down phone numbers somewhere safe. We keep a land line, but it’s no good if I can’t remember Mom’s phone number.
Yes that sounds horrible I know. But the days of knowing everyone’s phone numbers off the top of my head, even my parents’ numbers, are long gone. And where to meet up. My sister and I spent a lot of time on September 11 just missing each other…at one point she went to Times Square to find me at the (old) NYT building. Which freaked me out, when I heard her vmail…because at that point we didn’t know if there were more planes, more target locations.
Later, we agreed our meetup place would be my mother-in-law’s house in Queens — because we could walk over the bridge if the subways were closed. And who would target Queens? I’m not a full-on survivalist; won’t find me stashing water bottles and granola bars. But batteries: check. Flashlight: check. Phone numbers, check.
