Tuesday August 23: Earthquake.
It felt like there was some kind of construction going on in the building because the floor started rumbling. Then I realized that the whole building was shaking. What did I do? I hesitated and tried to decide if I should climb under my desk or not. While I was still deciding the earthquake stopped. Had it been worse, I'd have been toast. (Subsequently, I learned that climbing under a desk isn't the smartest thing to do anyway. You should curl up next to the desk.)
What resulted was an evacuation from our building and a walk home across the Potomac back into Virginia. Below are two evidence shots from my afternoon: Pennsylvania Ave. (If you look closely you can see the Capital building at the end of the street.) We walked along to Potomac and got picked up by Erin at Gravely Point, where the planes fly directly over you.
Luckily the weather was gorgeous and not hot. It seems like the perfect afternoon for an earthquake.
August 27: Hurricane Irene.
After spending the evening up around Dupont Circle Friday night we decided we should probably stock up on a few things so we headed to the grocery store. I bought two bottles of water, a can of soup, a box of cereal, a watermelon and four magazines. Flashlights were sold out. But we've never lost power before in a storm so it was no big deal.
Hurricane Irene hit Saturday bringing with her high winds and beating rain. I went to a coworker's engagement party in The District and found myself driving home in heavy rains. That was scary.
But more scary was having our power go out at 9 pm (while we were in the middle of some really good karaoke I might add) not knowing how long we were going to be out and not having our own flashlights. Luckily Erin was staying the night with us and luckily her aunt gave her flashlights and camping lanterns. We are idiots for not having our own stuff. And luckily the power came back on a few hours later. But it wasn't until morning that we realized how lucky we really were because the street next to us was still out of power after a tree was up rooted, crashed into a garage and pulled down the wires.
Needless to say, I think this is and was a wake up call to get going and to actually have some preparation for the future.
I also found this blog post really good in regards to preparation and natural disasters. I probably shouldn't take them so lightly.
