Earthquake! Just Another Day At The Office
Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 3:30 PM
1 Comment
Over the past decade I’ve had to evacuate my office in Manhattan due to:
- 2001: 9/11
- 2002: A fire and building collapse across the street
- 2003: An electrical fire in our building (previous office)
- 2004: The NYC blackout – no power in the city for 24+ hours
- 2009: Smoking/oil smell in our building
- 2011: 5.8 earthquake
Plus assorted fire drills and false alarms.
Today’s 5.8 earthquake that was about 87 miles south of DC shook our office building in Manhattan.
Sometime around 1:50pm EST, I had finished my lunch and started to feel lightheaded as I was writing on my laptop. Was thinking that my orange spicy chicken takeout was disagreeing with me.
I went to stand up and was wobbling so I sat down. Seemed like a good 30 seconds where it felt like the entire building was swaying quite a bit. Felt like we were on top of blades of tall grass. I stood up again and saw others in my office get up from their desk asking, “did you feel that?” followed by “It’s an earthquake!”
We started to leave the office and heard my sister admonishing our staff to stop appraising and walk down the 16 flights of stairs to the street (hard working loyal appraisers to the end). Could feel other shocks in our decent down the stairwell.
No cell service.
We began asking if it was just our building or if the others on the sidewalk were from other buildings. They were from other buildings. Got word that this had happened all around us and felt better.
Texted my wife and parents to see if they felt it and to let them know we were fine. No tremors at our home in Connecticut, but got notes from friends in the area including Long Island and as far away as Massachusetts and Michigan who had felt the tremors.
One of our appraisers came rushing back from his inspection when he got this message from his wife who also works for us, although she didn’t send it. Hopefully that person is ok.
Waited a little longer and then went back to work. Well, actually, to write this post.
Glad you are OK. I never felt it down here in SC, but some friends said they did.