Had an Earthquake the Other Day . . .

And the event was so exciting that the only thing I can say about it is . . . we had an earthquake the other day.

However, it has been interesting listening to the news. Oklahoma being Oklahoma, where news items generally begin with the word “football” or “wheat” or “gunshots”, an earthquake that can be even slightly felt is enough to provoke comments from retired ex-reporters and former football coaches who I thought had recently died.

The latest reports have been about the magnitude. You wouldn’t believe the amount of news chatter discussing and debating just how strong the earthquake actually was. The official USGS earthquake website shows the temblor at 4.3 on the Richter scale. But, every hour since the quake, reporters have “revised” the measurements ranging from 4.1 to 5.6 to the unofficial OMG scale of “pants-crappin’ strong”.

I was at work on the base when the earthquake hit, but me being me, I was busy and not paying too much attention to my surroundings, not even noticing a rather large nearby cabinet falling over. I just thought someone had slammed a door a bit too hard. I’m so obtuse when I get busy that I probably wouldn’t even notice an active shooter alert, vaguely thinking that the background noise (i.e. gunfire) penetrating my consciousness was just some Islamic religious fanatics celebrating a birthday or something.

Of course, there was some damage in the local area. Some windows were broken in Midwest City, some walls were cracked, and one building on the O.U. campus was damaged, bringing whoops of delight from some O.S.U. aggies. A few minutes after the quake (and after my co-workers convinced me that the ceiling tiles on my desk were not there as a result of some office prank), I called Nana Pam at Buddha Belly Farm to see if the Danger Lane Workshop was OK. She told me she felt the whole house move, and thought that a truck had hit the house. And she knows what she’s talking about – a truck did hit our previous house when we lived in Moore. Funny thing – I remember her initial thought then was that an earthquake had occurred. I guess if an aircraft ever hits the place her first thought would be that a truck hit the house during an earthquake.

One of the first responses from the state officials was to check for any major damage on the most important infrastructures in the state, namely the O.U. and O.S.U. football fields. At O.U., it was noticed that the temblor had set up a harmonic resonance in one of the goal posts, driving moles and gophers from the all-natural turf and into the visitor’s locker room. After extensive analysis, it was determined that the presence of the moles and gophers had actually improved the condition of the visitor’s locker room, so the moles and gophers will have to be removed.

Some bright junior high-school kid suggested that bridges could be adversely affected by an earthquake. After berating the kid for adolescent fear-mongering, the state engineer announced that all the bridges in the state would be inspected immediately after he ensured the safety of all the buildings in the Valley Brooke area. (Note to people not familiar with the OKC area: Valley Brooke is the “racey” side of town – I’ve never been there.)

Aunt Linda called me from Tulsa to say that the 20 story building in which she worked swayed back and forth for quite a few seconds right after the quake, alarming her and her co-workers. I wanted to reassure them with my expertise in the matter, so she put me on speaker phone and I addressed her co-workers with the following: “Don’t worry, your building is sufficiently tall so if a major earthquake does cause a collapse, you would be killed quickly enough so as not to notice your bodies being ripped apart by the falling debris.”

It gives me such a warm feeling inside to use my technical education to reassure others.