Shaken (again)!

We had a large earthquake Thursday morning-- I was in clinic and felt the "rolling/rumbling" while at my desk.  I never feel the small (3.0- 4.0 magnitude) earthquakes that happen frequently around here. We had a large one a couple of Decembers ago which shook us awake but which caused no damage at our residence, while others south and west of us on the north coast were not so lucky. 

The earthquake registered 7.0 on the Richter scale (our largest in ~32 years) and, shortly after, triggered a tsunami warning for (about 5 million people in) our area and north of us, which had people's phones blowing up (apparently my phone does not receive natural disaster notifications or I disabled this feature a while back). We still had patients in the clinic and more work to do-- once the shaking stopped and we got out from under our desks, we checked and no one in authority told us to evacuate our clinic in Arcata, so we kept working. We got text, call, and e-mail alerts from our kids' school to say that they were safe and, while they're located in a lowland area of Arcata, they're not actually in the tsunami zone, as shown by this map (Iver told me the teachers showed the kids the map which I liked!). (E-mail from the school read, "Students are safe. School is secure. School is not in a tsunami zone. Students have returned to secure classrooms.").

Nevertheless, many employees and parents were anxious, left clinic, and also picked up their kids from school, causing panic and traffic issues. A nearby clinic, veterinary hospital, and childcare center evacuated their building.  Our kids, who stayed at school until late afternoon, said that only nine kids remained at the end of the day! Many appointments were cancelled (or no-showed) by patients.

Many friends (even my sister in Africa!) heard about the quake and warning on national news and reached out to check if we were okay (thank you!!). The tsunami warning was canceled about an hour later (right around noon), and all went on as planned on the sunny day we had. Some people in Eureka and South/west (closer to the earthquake's epicenter in the ocean) lost power, but we did not.  I have worries about many things, but I trust emergency authorities and, despite evacuating a wildfire this summer, natural disasters and their aftermaths are not high on my list of things that cause me anxiety.

We're thankful for the calm response from the school, and, more importantly, to have stayed safe and well despite this latest quake!  Until the next one!