Today we started our pre-school workshops and all county teachers were in various sessions at our high school. As I sat in my 4th session, I was convinced that the teacher behind my was shaking my chair. As I turned around to see what could be the problem, a chorus of "What's that?" and other similar phrases rose up around the room. We were all shaking! It seemed to go on forever, but it was probably about 30 seconds. Plenty long for me! It was the oddest feeling ever, and even once it seemed to stop, I still felt like we were moving. It even made me dizzy.
Since we were trapped in school, we weren't sure what in the world was going on. I turned to my trusted news source...Facebook...where there were already several posts from friends in Virginia in North Carolina who had felt the same thing. Then Ned chimed in with a text asking if I had felt it. He, along with the Facebook community, informed me that there had been a earthquake near Richmond, VA measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale. We don't have earthquakes in Virginia! The craziest thing was that some people in the room didn't notice. I was in the session with a co-worker who has a child at Jen-Jen's, and we both wanted to know everything was fine there but hated to call during nap time. I'm glad we didn't, because everyone was having trouble getting a signal, and Jen-Jen was even having trouble responding to texts.
We were allowed to leave at 2:30 so I went right to get Avery, who slept through the whole thing. We are so thankful that there was no damage here and does not appear to be serious damage or injuries anywhere. Ned did think to call our contractor and check on everything, especially the workers who were probably high on ladders. Felix and Sammy were not wearing crash helmets when Avery and I got home, so evidently they made out ok too. It will be interesting to see if new safety precautions come out because of this, especially at school. Earthquakes are rare here, but had it been serious, we all would have been squished because we sat there looking at each other.
We'll get past the earthquake today only to begin preparations for a hurricane this weekend. I'm not a fan of hurricanes and was not excited to hear The Weather Channel discuss the possibility of it moving up the I95 corridor. Ned will most likely be at the fire station during the storm, which means Avery and I will most likely be with Lolli and Poppa. I don't want to be alone but would much rather be home. Hopefully the storm will turn and spare us all. I have a tendency to prepare for bad weather by buying candy corn and Pepsi, but I think I'll try to be a little more industrious this time. With our weather lately you just never know.
(The picture used is meant to bring a chuckle and in no way disregards or disrespects those who did suffer damage.)
2 comments:
i didn't even notice the picture at first, but then went back after your "disclaimer" and laughed so hard when i saw it! some people in atlanta said they felt the tremors of the aftershocks, but i had no idea.
facebook is my most trusted news source, too - ha!
stay safe this weekend - we'll be praying it turns!
Was it not the weirdest feeling y'day! I was quite shaken from shock for a bit of the afternoon! And I too turned to FB to see what was going on...LOL! Kevin text to let me know that he and P were ok and Paisley had slept as well thru the shake! And now to prepare for the hurricane.:-( I will probably go to my Mom's as well since Kevin will be on night shift the weekend and just don't want to ride it out alone. Praying the storm turns but if not stay safe:-)
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