This will undoubtedly go down in local folks' memories on par with "where were you.... when we landed on the moon? when JFK was shot? when the twin towers went down on 9/11?" Let's face it, earthquakes are so rare on the East Coast that they almost defy imagination. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland for my entire 57 years and I have never experienced an earthquake. Until today.
Where were you?
I was at my desk on the second floor of a 1970's era building on our campus at Echo Hill Outdoor School. There was a lot of light-hearted chatter going on in the adjacent office with my colleagues as we awaited the afternoon arrivals of our new fall staff members. The floor began to vibrate, and at first I wondered if there were a lot of staff members dancing in another part of the building (we can be a pretty rowdy bunch at times!) The shaking quickly intensified to the point where it felt like a gigantic washing machine was out of balance, and people began calling out "is it the AC system?" "is something wrong with the (kitchen vent) fan?" I looked over at the desk next to me and saw the file folders and pencil holder shaking to the point of blurring. A pile of papers slid to the floor. A picture fell off the wall and I watched a bulletin board, propped against the fireplace chimney out on the balcony, fall over. Someone shouted to evacuate the building and we did. Once outside the shaking stopped and cognitive processes began making order of what we had just experienced. "That was bizarre!" "I've never felt anything like that before!" "It must have been an earthquake!" I stared at the trees surrounding the campus, certain they must still be trembling. But no - the leaves and branches were eerily still.
Some moments passed and we finally determined to re-enter the building. Amazingly, we had not lost Internet connection (it seems that while everything else causes us to lose connection, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake had not!) Two of my daughters called to report feeling it, one in Chestertown about 12 miles away, the other in Church Hill, even further south. Text messages began flooding cell phones with shocking news: "They felt it in New York!" Another text: "Virginia!" Still another: "Rehoboth Beach!" Four minutes into the calm someone logged into their Facebook page and downloaded a virtual flood of news.
Although we were all still dazed, the conversation quickly turned to the amazing ability of technology to instantaneously connect people. And in that aftermath of uncertainty, we did what people do best - we reached out to one another.
So.... where were you when the East Coast Earthquake hit?
