The Stupid Appraiser

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One of the tabs in my browser is always open on USGS.gov -> hazards -> earthquakes, Southern California. Earthquakes terrify me. It is such a helpless feeling to be in one. Of course, me saying that is kind of laughable, since I haven’t been in a really bad one. Yes, the Northridge one in 1994 was quite an experience here, too, but “here” is about 80 miles away from the epicenter, so I can’t really “claim” that one. The more recent 5.4 Chino Hills one rocked us pretty good, but - again - we’re not exactly at the epicenter of it, either. And though 5.4 is pretty disturbing, it ain’t exactly a global disaster. My experience with the Chino Hills quake makes for a funny potty humor opportunity - but that’s for later (or should that be “butt”?)!

I have a pool in the backyard. An early morning back in the spring of 1984 I was having coffee at the kitchen table and was looking out over the pool. A slight, but very definite, standing wave developed and kept going back and forth for quite a while. At that time I didn’t have much experience with earthquakes, but that’s what I thought to myself - that must be an eq, somewhere. Later on the news they reported the rather large eq way over in Idaho that morning (6.9, I think). Since then, my eyes are peeled on the pool to detect the slightest hint of a standing wave. Sometimes the wind will actually produce something similar, and that sets me on pins and needles, but usually there’s some slight difference in the behaviour that tips me off that this is no eq.

In the fall of 1989 I was on the cordless phone with a local girl friend, and happened to be standing at the patio door and look over the pool. A very pronounced wave developed, prompting me to interrupt my friend to frantically tell her “there’s an earthquake”. Well, neither one of us felt anything, so I scooted over to the TV and turned it on. Sure enough - the big Loma Prieta quake had struck just a few minutes before the wave developed in my pool. It would have been interesting to have had that all timed out precisely, just to see how fast those S-waves of the quake were travelling! That’s part of the obsession - wanting to know, even the gorey details, so-to-speak.

In 1994, the Northridge quake struck so early in the morning that, like most, we were still asleep. When things settled (especially the nerves!) and we went to check for damage, we found that the pool had sloshed out a considerable amount of its water. So we missed the big wave, but were reassured of the drainage from our lot - the water all seemed to have sloshed out in one corner of the pool and then travelled along the side of the house following the concrete path, bypassed the entryway and then very orderly draining past the garage and down the driveway to the gutter! Living in an older construction home, that was actually quite a fine revelation.

Now, I did miss the wave of the Chino Hills quake, itself, which I’ll explain in a while (teasing with the potty humor bit…), but later - in the early evening - we were sitting on the patio recapping the day and, true to my obsession, I looked out over the pool. You guessed it - a standing wave developed. Not very big, mind you, but with the earlier shaker fresh in mind, this left no doubt that it was another one. We didn’t feel anything, but I looked it up later, and sure enough, that was an aftershock (2.6, I think).

Part of my obsessiveness (!) is trying to figure out what I would do if an eq hit while I’m doing this, or doing that, or find myself in this spot or that - you know, the old “stop, drop and roll” kind of routine (I guess “duck for cover and cower” is more like it?). So - what would I do if I found myself on the pot? That’s actually, truly been one of my most visited concerns. Yes, that’s were I was when the Chino Hills eq struck… My first reaction was disbelief. A quick couple of thoughts followed, basically amounting to “well, this bathroom is built like a bunker, just stay put” - so I enacted my long-rehearsed “what-to-do-if” for this scenario and quickly reached back to flush, then stayed right there. The flushing became a part of the mental rehearsal because “you never know how bad its going to get”, so you don’t know when you’ll next be able to perform that fine sanitary function…

Talk about P-waves and S-waves… :::grin:::

I just find it fascinating how far the quake waves travel! Especially the Idaho ones, back in 1984! Who’d have thunk? Of course, I report all these observations on the USGS website, in their “Did you feel it?” section. They only show the statistics per zip code, unfortunately - I wish they’d actually show what people DO report. In an anonymous fashion, of course. And, no, I didn’t give them the bathroom details, figured they might trash my whole report.