so today. i’m just sitting at my desk. on the 26th floor. working away.
and the building starts to shake
now, when it is windy it is not uncommon for the building to shake
but it was really shaking.
and my door, which was closed, was rattling in the frame.
and i looked outside. no wind.
so i thought
bomb?
(i do live in the “dc nuclear blast radius”)
it did not cross my mind that it was an EARTHQUAKE
i went into the hallway, were my coworkers had gathered and they said earthquake! we have lots of CA and Japan transplants so they said, oh, this is nothing! i mean, it is something for the east coast, but it is all fine.
i freaked out a bit in my head. mainly b/c in that minute of shaking i was acutely aware how suddenly it could ALL END.
but it didn’t end
and we all have lots of work to do. so we all went back to work.
the rest of the city. not so much. the federal gov’t sent all their peeps home.
the monuments closed
the metro slowed the a crawl
virginia abandoned its HOV restrictions (this is actually a huge deal b/c a WHOLE interstate is HOV)
we worked
and by 5, there was little traffic. (though a fair amount of people milling around rosslyn)
I doubt buildings in DC are constructed to the same standards as those in Japan or San Fran, so I think a little alarm is appropriate.
My brother lives in Richmond but was out of town.