Earthquake City

For those of you not in California, you may not know that recently San Ramon has been dubbed Earthquake City. Did you know there is such thing as an earthquake ‘swarm’ or ‘storm’? I sure didn’t. Over the past 2 weeks we have had over 400 earthquakes. 

The majority of them are small but even when a small one happens directly beneath you it can be disconcerting. The first few days it was happening, I didn’t feel a thing. I guess I didn’t know what to look for. But then one day Jonathan pointed it out to me as it was happening and since then I have recognized several more. You almost hear it before you feel it, and out windows will rattle before the house shakes. I haven't felt any below 2.0 magnitude.

It’s crazy because it hasn’t been a big deal, but it’s just scary because you don’t know when it’s going to happen or how long it will last or how strong it will be. You never know when or if it’ll be ‘a big one’. Several have happened over night and woken me up. I worry that if a big one happens at night I won’t be able to react fast enough to get to Forest. But locals familiar with EQ protocol have assured me that his crib is a fairly safe place to be and we’ve made sure there is nothing hanging on the walls that could potentially fall on him in the case of a substantial quake. 

Still , I’m used to hurricanes or even tornadoes which have at least some advanced warning. Sure, those natural disasters are nearly always more destructive but at least you can feel prepared. I’d still prefer a 3.6 earthquake to an F1 tornado or Category 1 Hurricane though. I’m just really praying that we don’t have any stronger than that coming our way!