October 30, 2007
Whew, That Was Fun
9:30 Update: Things seem to be settling down. We're going to move the bulk of this post behind a jump. The only really big news at the moment is that there's a 30% chance of a strong aftershock in the next week, and a 5 to 10% chance of another strong earthquake.
If you were lucky enough to feel The Great San Francisco San Jose Alum Rock 5.6 Back-and-Forthing of 2007, please continue to send in reports. We especially like links to blog posts about the earthquake, such as Greg's.
Finally, a headline's gone up on KRON's site; but the headline links to a story about the Berkeley tree sitters. Ha! Hey, we wonder if they got rattled out of their perch? Macherena reports that KRON's just been showing a static shot of a seismograph. Bet it sure would be handy to have a reporting staff right about now.
9:10 Update: Cranky reports that MTV is showing reruns of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.
Regarding aftershocks, the USGS says:
... the probability of a strong and possibly damaging aftershock IN THE NEXT 7 DAYS is approximately 30 PERCENT. ... there is a small chance (APPROXIMATELY 5 TO 10 PERCENT) of an earthquake equal to or larger than this mainshock in the next 7 days. ... approximately 15 to 40 SMALL AFTERSHOCKS are expected in the same 7-DAY PERIOD ...
So there.
Here's where some of the aftershocks have landed -- as you can see, they're pretty small:
BART's running its trains slowly, but with no apparent problems; PG&E reports no utility disruptions. Some broken water pipes reported near San Jose.
9:00 Update: Plug1 reports an orange glow in the east bay sky. We can see nothing out of the ordinary from home at the top of St Mary's Heights (at Fulton/Stanyan). It sure is foggy tonight.
Sunnyside residents report shaking; Tendernob residents report nothing; Elihu in the Loin reports lengthy shaking; Nob Hill reports some panic. Spencer in San Jose reports that it was "scary as shit." Potrero Hill and SF State report feeling nothing; but then someone else in Potrero Hill reports normal shaking.
So now, it would appear that the situation is as follows: there was a big earthquake. It was scary. Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
8:50 Update: CBS5 reports that chances are good that there'll be a 6.3 in the next 3 days. But Plug1 your mom observes that they can't even get the weather right, so whatever. So far, there've been a few small aftershocks, all under 2.0.
We are unmoved by reports of "things falling off of shelves." Missionite's account of a perturbed cat, however, gave us goosebumps.
A quick survey of San Jose webcams shows nothing terribly awry: the city's not in flames, at least. SJSU; Tech Museum; CBS5. Here's CBS's live seismograph. CBS's live spirograph has apparently gone offline.
Still no news on KRON's site: all is well in San Francisco! Now, here's Jan Wahl with an new hat.
8:40 Update: Commenters report feeling like a jello mold; it sure was a long one, wasn't it? More nit-pickery over how much the north bay suffered, and about liquefaction and landfill and how a quicksand drowning beats living in the Sunset. Brock and Martin report that phone lines are clogged and calls aren't going through. Please don't test that; just trust that it's true for now, and hold your calls until things settle down a bit. Do email your parents, though.
8:35 Update: Local news stations are getting around to reporting that there was an earthquake. Who knew! No new information. CBS5; NBC11; KTVU. SFGate was hanging for a while but now has the same blurb as everyone else. Everything's hunky dory at KRON; no earthquake news at all.
8:25 Update: There was a 2.9 near Concord around 1pm today. Suckafree reports that his dog predicted it. Mariconsoy is already so drunk he's misspelling the brands in his emergency alcohol kit.
8:20 Update: Sangfroid nails it with a guess of 5.0 -- turns out it was a 5.6. None of the local news websites have any info up, but it looks like SF made it through things pretty well -- some shaking, no major damage reported yet. Craigslist is abuzz. Get your mind off the shaking by watching some near-misses with tornadoes.
8:15 Update:Recent earthquake activity is logged by the USGS here. Looks like this one is the one we felt. In case you're wondering where Alum Rock (close to the epicenter) is, check the Google map. Very close to San Jose. Some SFist staff report minimal shaking in the north bay; commenters say substantial movement in Corte Madera.
8:05 Update: Is everyone okay?
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http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
You mean that wasn't a semi driving by? Sheesh. I'm so desensitized.
So that was what, a 5.0?
talk about live bloggin'
I was about to post my take on the MUNI/BART Non_Halloween Kerfuffle and....
http://www.njudahchronicles.com/
Frakkin aY!
The biggest I've felt since '89. Went on for a long time.
My roommate said there was a tremblor in Orinda this morning.
Alum Rock, CA - 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31 degrees)
Milpitas, CA - 11 km (7 miles) E (91 degrees)
San Jose City Hall, CA - 15 km (9 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Sunol-Midtown, CA - 17 km (11 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Coordinates
37 deg. 26.0 min. N (37.433N), 121 deg. 46.5 min. W (121.776W)
Depth 8.8 km (5.5 miles)
Oh yeah, nothing like a foot massage
I never feel that sort of rocking in North Beach. Wine glasses clanging and windows rattling. Strange that it is taking so long for USGS to rate that one.
whole lotta shaking going on in marin - corte madera to be exact.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Wow, first quake I've actually felt all year. Seems like up until now they've all been in the East Bay and down here in Ingleside I never felt anything.
Certainly long enough.
Nice to know that SFist and Craigslist are the first places I go.
Sounded like a bunch of crap fell off my roof. Probably just leaves and sticks. So much for dogs knowing about earthquakes a few second before humans. Oh yeah! You're barking now.
Loooooooooooooooong
still anyone who was here for 89, esp. those of us in Santa Cruz saw the shit go down...not to be all "bay area'er than thou" but....c'mon bein' here before 2000 has to count for something..
my golden was going nuts right before it. he definitely knew it was coming, no shit.
it rolled under us here in south beach and then shook us up.
kinda scary.
5.6 seems low.
if you are on landfill, it'll feel worse than if you're not...
That was a small quake, but I activated my emergency safety plan and unbolted a bottle of Kettle One from the supply vault.
Eh Marin didn't shake *that* much.
Okay, i had one -- ONE! -- cocktail, and failed to feel it. Man.
Anyway, hope you're all safe.
Suckafree-
It might be time to find out about liqufaction - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SFBALiqufactionMap.jpg
Oh! They didn't tell you about that when you bought/rented the place? Odd ...
god is angry that dufty canceled halloween, me thinks.
Mad props to mattymatt for bein first on the scene less than a minute after the quake. Now thats journalism damit. And jeezum-Crow that was a long quake.
Brief rolling in the Castro. Felt like what I imagine being a jello mold is like.
Also, anyone elses cellphone not workin?
nice map bishop. keep telling yourself the sunset is worth living in after the big one. not for me, sorry. i'd rather suffocate in quicksand.
I was here in 1989... still waiting for the dreaded monster quake known as "The Big One." Every few years, the local media will run scaremongering stories about how we're due for "The Big One."
That's a good emergency plan mariconsoy, reminds me that I should stock up on Wild Turkey...
Channel 5 just said the possibility for something around a 6.3 in the next 72 hours is good.
way to sound the alarm, KPIX. sheesh.
The timeline has an omission. 8:08 p.m. I wrote "Earthquake!" in the comments for the previous post. Donde esta ma mad props? Oh and Chanel 5 can't even get the weather right, so I'm not loading up the Bentley just yet.
Snoopy just fell off his dog house in "The Great Pumpkin" on ABC. Lucy and Linus also complaining that they cant get their calls thru to Shroeder or Charlie brown. Woodstock is no where to be found, most likely he was the one hit by the BART train @ Powell.
How tragic.
Chanel 5 can't even get the weather right
Truer words were never typed.
my cat was going crazy about ten minutes prior. Otherwise quiet and demure, she was crying non stop for at least a couple minutes. I asked her WTF but I don't speak cat so I completely missed the run-for-your-life message and just assumed she was having a self pity moment. Next time I'll give her a little more credit.
for the drunks and crackheads on the corner, this was the only time they could stand in one place
The earth was just having unsanctioned gaiety, so there might be a bus re-route. I wonder which ones?
in all seriousness, there is an orange glow coming from the east bay sky. that stupid UCSF building is in my field of vision so i cant tell exactly WTF is going on.
(from the bottom of potrero hill)
ps. fizzandpop made the channel 5 sucks at weather comment.
not that im saying they dont. b/c they do.
I just felt another bump, or should I just HAVE another bump?
I'm down in San Jose - like 3 miles from Alum Rock and that was scary as shit.
It went forever....
Whoa....
actually, my cat cried, too. i thought it was because he was confined for a while, but it could have been the quake.
Jan Wahl with a new hat? God IS mad at us.
My dog is useless. She only wanted dinner and I could barely get her out of the house. I fear the house will fall on me. It had the '89 length -- it just kept goin' and goin' and goin'
But all is well. MTV is showing reruns of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.
I'm in the Tenderloin, and It felt like it the damn thing went on for at least 45 seconds.
I was in my office down in Potrero Hill, old warehouse building converted into nifty spots for tech companies, a sperm bank and a gay porn studio.
The sound of the quake was truly awful, like waves crashing over the roof. I was the only one there, so I lodged myself in a door frame then ran out when things settled.
No damage as far as I could tell, though I did shut my computer down the "wrong" way. We'll see what my spreadsheets look like in the morning. :)
Super scary!
I was on the M line, coming back from the Sunset. I was probably in West Portal when that sucker went down, and the rocking and rolling of the train covered it up. Darnit - I kinda like quakes in the fives.
It wasn't that big here in Oakland, but it was weird, what with the length and the way it seemed to start up again after it stopped. I can't remember a quake that did that...it's like it had a mind of its own.
KRON 4 has been showing a computer screen with the same seismic graph for about 45 minutes. What happened to location crews? I want to see cans off the shelves and startled Starbucks workers.
Oh Matty Matt -- you have the Tila Tequila love. It should really be called A Shot of Penicillin Because of Tila Tequila.
The earthquake made CNN and Soledad O'Brien (she's really still on?)
Only felt a tiny bit in central SF, and heard the windows shaking in their frames. A bit of a follow on shock maybe. Nada mas. Hooray for Victorians built close to bedrock!
There was an initial jolt (that we thought was the neighbors dropping something) then it kinda stopped, then the shaking started. You could see the floor move and roll. The sliding glass doors were moving and I was standing between the bedroom and bathroom in the doorway with my wife.
It was intense.
I was naked - All I could think about was - shit, I don't want to run outside naked...
Just how much more of this live coverage on TV needs to keep going? KRON is trying to bleed this thing out as long as they can than the other stations.