Nicole Eisenberg>Freshman>Business>University of Maryland
Many people across the world were celebrating Easter Sunday on this past April the 4th. However, this holiday an unwelcome guest came to the celebration. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Baja, California along the Laguna Salada fault line at 6:40 PM local time. This earthquake did not just affect the locals though. It reverberated to be felt over three hundred miles away by over twenty million people, according to ABC News.
Sophomore and Cognitive Science major, Tyler Nelson, at the University of California, San Diego said that he felt the quake for what seemed like only twenty seconds, although in reality it lasted for a full forty-five. Because he is a native of California and Tyler has experienced earthquakes before, he remained calm.
In fact, Nelson explained, “It started off as kind of a mild shaking. I thought the people above me were running around. They have done that before.” After Tyler realized that the rumbling was not his neighbors and was actually an earthquake being felt miles away from its epicenter, he tried to remember where to go to stay safe. He decided to take cover under a table. According to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tyler was right on! The agency explains that during an earthquake, one must “Drop to the ground; take cover by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture; and hold on until the shaking stops.”
After the initial quake, Nelson reported feeling a few aftershocks throughout the subsequent hours. In the following twenty-four hours, there were actually a total of one hundred aftershocks felt across all of California and Mexico, reported ABC News. Fortunately, this earthquake was not as damaging as the past earthquakes in Chile and especially not as damaging as the one in Haiti. ABC News reported that there were only three deaths and although some buildings were damaged, the damage wasn’t nearly as extensive as in Haiti. According to ABC News, “The biggest part of the energy spread into unpopulated areas of the desert,” and the surrounding area has strictly enforced building codes, the infrastructure was more prepared to withstand these seismic waves than Haiti had been.
Since there was rampant damage closer to the epicenter, the community of Baja, California and the surrounding areas are currently re-building in a safe and timely matter.
Did you or anyone you know feel the earthquake? What was your reaction?
photo from http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/baja-apr-5-5.jpg
