Earthquake

We had an earthquake this morning at about 11:45.

Ethan and I were playing Wii bowling in the TV room at my Dad's house in Villa Park, California where we are visiting for the month. There was a jolt and Brent (my brother) called out "earthquake" from upstairs. I called Ethan to come shelter under a doorway with me. The ground rumbled, then it shook a bit after that. If you've experienced a few earthquakes you'll know that different types of quakes feel different. This one had 3 different types of sensations which I don't remember as being usual (but I HAVE been living in Texas for 7 years so my memory could be fuzzy). It seemed to last longer than usual. In most of my past experiences, by the time you know you're having one, it's over. This one we had time to react and time for me to start giving Ethan some earthquake safety information. My measure of when things had stopped moving was an old oven in the side yard that's waiting to be hauled off that I could see thru the sliding glass door. The microwave on top of it was teetering back and forth. When everything was over, the chandelier in the dining room was still swaying pretty good.

Everything seems fine, as of an hour after the quake I had not yet heard reports of any damage. It was reported as a 5.4 in magnitude on my local TV sat ion which is moderate in strength . The epicenter was in the Chino Hills/Diamond Bar area which is about 20 miles from where we are.

I saw a news report that rides had been shut down at Disneyland (for inspection I would expect) so I am VERY GLAD that we went to Disneyland YESTERDAY instead of today!

I just had another report from Diamond Bar which is pretty much right on top of the epicenter. At the house with the treehouse from my post High In The Treetops ... drawers were open and pictures were crooked, a clock had fallen off the wall and a candleholder fell from the mantle and broke, but no serious or structural damage could be seen.

For more about the Richter Magnitude Scale and other earthquake information, follow the link: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/topics/richter.php