Earthquake Frenzy!

Yep, it's true.  Virginia had a pretty large Earthquake on Tuesday.  It measured a 5.8 in our area, and it happened at about 2 pm.  I was in the hallway of my school using the copier machine, and all of a sudden there was shaking.  I thought to myself, "Oh something is shaking, I think the earth is shaking...Oh my god the earth is shaking! I hope it stops...it's not stopping. Please stop! Ok, that was definitely an earthquake."

You probably know that earthquakes really just DON'T happen in these parts.  Yes there are thousands of tremors all over the world, but this was huge news....maybe not to those who live on fault lines.  Many people I talked to thought that there was bomb or something, or a huge metro accident or something.  Which isn't so far fetched.  When the plane hit the Pentagon 10 years ago people did hear it and feel it. So when something really strange happens around here, it's intense, people don't know how to react.  People assume all sorts of things.

Talking to my students about it was really interesting.  Many of them were actually really frightened.  I think some of them didn't even know what it was, and then most of them didn't even know what to do. In spawned a great conversation about natural disasters.  We talked about tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis.  Most of them were unaware of what some of those were.  No one was in shock and most of them were able to laugh about it, and of course some them just played it cool (what happened...?  who cares?). 

On the next list of strange natural weather phenomenon is Hurricane Irene.  It's supposed to move up the coast by this weekend, should be a huge storm in our area.  I am not panicking, but in 2003 there was a huge hurricane, and it took out power for a whole week, and water was shut off.  It was kind of a nightmare..... So I plan on stockpiling some snacks and water, just in case.  Maybe a flashlight or two.

As I look out the window now, it's very gray and overcast, there are bouts of sun rays occasionally, but I think it's clear that something is headed our way.

No-- I don't think it's the end of the world.