Earthquake!!! ...and possible hurricane?!

On August 23, 2011 at 1:51 P.M. we had a 5.8 earthquake. It was one of the scariest things I ever experienced. Curt had just laid Brandon down for his nap and left to go wash the car. I went in the kitchen to unload and reload the dishwasher. I was cleaning up the pans from lunch and had just turned the garbage disposal on when I noticed that the whole countertop was shaking as well as the floor. My first immediate thought was "holy hell, what is wrong with the garbage disposal". I immediately turn it off and notice that everything is still shaking, even the walls. My next thought was that a helicopter was about to crash on our house, it was LOUD. I'm assuming from all the shaking. Even my body felt like it was shaking. I was staring at the wall and watching my pictures fall down, it felt like my brain was juggling around in my head. Meanwhile I hear Brandon start to scream upstairs so I take off running. I still at this point thought it was a helicopter. I get halfway upstairs when the shaking stopped. I see Kaylie holding on to her bedpost and I rush into Brandon's room and snatch him out of his crib and came running back down with both kids. At this point I realize as I'm coming down the stairs that it wasn't a helicopter at all, it was an earthquake. A freaking earthquake in DC. (This whole episode only lasted 30-45 seconds at most) I immediately open the front door to see if anything so going on out there and nothing is. I come inside and call my sister and tell her "I totally think we just had an earthquake!" I wasn't sure at this point and was waiting for confirmation and breaking news. I just had hung up the phone when sure enough breaking news with the confirmed earthquake.
I was so shaken up. My heart literally raced for the next three or so hours. I couldn't calm down. My anxiety level had reached full peak, I seriously thought I might have a heart attack. At this point I can't use my house phone anymore, I just get "all circuits are busy". No cell phone use either, not even text messages. I was able to get Brandon to take a nap, but man that was scary. I just keep thinking about the Japan earthquake and how huge that was and how scary this little 5.8 quake was. I mean to feel the ground shaking under your feet and to feel and see your house sway back and forth and rattle around is extremely nerve-rattling. I don't even want to know what that quake was like in Japan!!!

I have been through tornadoes multiple times in my life before and been through a hurricane (hurricane Ivan in 2004) and two tropical storms (Rita and another one I can't remember the name of in 2004 and 2005) while in Georgia, I have to say this tops all of that. Earthquakes come out of nowhere. At least with hurricanes you know they are coming and can prepare and with tornadoes you can kind of get an idea just by noticing if the weather is right for those and what to look for, but an earthquake, you can't prepare for in any way.

Now this weekend we are supposed to possibly get hit by Hurricane Irene. So the stores are selling out of water and stuff quickly. At this point the forecasters are not sure how it will impact the DC area. Right now they have the center of the storm going through Ocean City, MD, so we will at least get lots of rain and wind. We shall see.
I can't believe we are going to have two natural disasters in the span of a few days apart!

But we are all okay. I had two picture frames break and that is all. The washington monument is cracked and the national cathedral suffered a lot of damage. It's just crazy and I still can't believe I experienced an earthquake in Virginia!
I am getting annoyed at the west coasters tell us to get over it and stop the drama, but honestly they have to realize that most of us have NEVER experienced something like that. Traffic had not been this bad since 9/11 they said. It caused chaos in this area. It WAS a significant earthquake. 5.8 is nothing little by any means. Sure if you have experienced one greater than that, then sure it probably didn't jar you, but for the rest of us, it was a big deal. I get annoyed by people who always have to say "oh, no biggie, we had a 7.4 one in Cali...blah, blah, blah." So? What's your point?! Good for you. Don't undermine how the rest of us feel because you didn't experience this quake personally! Grr. People get on my nerves with that. People had their homes damaged. Whole apartment complexes are condemned, foundations shifted which will cost homeowners thousands and thousands of dollars to fix, as well as all the damage to the Monument and the Cathedral which they are estimating to cost over a million dollars to fix! Come on people, give us northerners a break! It WAS significant to us!