Survived 2011 Washington D.C. Earthquake

The miniature piano bench took a tumble

It’s official. I survived the Washington D.C. earthquake today. At a category 5.9, it shook my
town home nice and hard. I happened to be on the second floor crunching numbers for my business plan for my Full Sail University graduate class. From far away, I heard a rumble, and then I heard a crash upstairs. Immediately, I opened my mouth to start yelling at my cats for getting into something, and then I turned to see my gray tabby cat peering up the stairs. Then the house really started shaking so I leaped to the hallway doorway and just stood there while yelling to my cats to hide. My cats flew up the stairs and out of sight. My picture frames were swinging from side to side on their hooks as I turned to see my chandelier swinging a good foot back and forth carelessly. The townhouse creaked noisily from side to side. I found myself muttering “oh god, oh god” over and over again. My only thought was where are my cats and when will this will be over? Suddenly, it stopped. Bobby McFerrin’s voice through my Pandora radio on my laptop let out a happy, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” How could I not worry at a time like this? I let out a slow breath of relief and flew up the stairs to look for my cats. A foul jalapeno juice smell came from my kitchen, and I came back downstairs to find my fridge door open a crack with a large puddle of green juice all over the floor. At that moment, jalapenos were not appetizing.

Next I walked around to assess the household damage. The second story was fine with only the spill in the kitchen, and the cat’s water bowls had spilled. Upstairs was a different story. My husband’s dresser drawers were hanging open with his cologne bottles sitting on their sides. A side closet’s doors had been shaken open with the top shelf’s contents on the floor. The loud crash had been one of our old monitors from a computer we used to use. It lay on its side on the floor in a back bedroom. Downstairs I was relieved to find nothing was out of place, and nothing had fallen on my car in the garage. Phew! It could have been a lot worse.

My cats were freaked out for a while and snuck around keeping low to the floor. I gave them a treat to try to calm them down. A few minutes later, my husband called me from his work in D.C. Apparently, all the downtown D.C. buildings had been evacuated. Then the telephone lines went down. Luckily, my Verizon cell phone was still partially working on every other call. My husband, my cats and I were okay. I’m just relieved our house had not fallen apart.

In light of today, I decided to attach the song below. Washington, “Don’t worry, be happy!”



YouTube.com. (2009). Bobby McFerrin - don't worry be happy. Retrieved August 23, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv-Fk1PwVeU