Apocalypse in the U.S.

In lieu of the earthquake that hit Chicago this morning, and with the massive blizzards that are hitting Chicago and the East Coast, I thought I would write about my earthquake experience.

Two years ago, and 6.0 earthquake hit southern Illinois and St. Louis. I first felt it at 4am. I was wasted and playing guitar hero at the time. Suddenly, the whole house started shaking. I thought it was part of the video game and that that I had beat the game! Anyway, I passed out soon after and woke up again at 8am to the whole house shaking. I thought it was street construction and was so pissed they had started so early and woken me up. I only realized it was an earthquake and aftershock when some co-workers told me later that day.

The 4.3 earthquake that struck Chicago this morning around 4am was a 4.3. Almost no one I know felt it, or even knew it occurred until I told them about it. It was in the suburbs, and barely anyone felt it in the city, but people felt it in Indiana, especially around South bend.

Little known fact: The midwest is the second most active fault line in the U.S. outside of California. It sits on the New Madrid fault line, and every couple of hundred years, there are devastating earthquakes. Because the region is so flat, even small quakes are felt for miles and miles. Here's a great article about it:

http://www.scchealth.org/docs/ems/docs/prepare/newMadrid.html

The earthquake happened in Chicago while I was at work, and everyone in Chicago was sleeping. I wanted to get first hand info about what happened, and I finally realized how people can communicate so quickly using Twitter. On Google, when you search for news articles, there is a live feed function that continuously pops up new articles and blog posts are they are published. This includes twitter, so literally minutes after the quake, I was able to read people's responses and learn where people did and did not feel the quake, how they responded, and what their thoughts were. It was pretty cool.

For the first time, I miss the states, mostly because of the snow! I'm so jealous that everyone in DC is getting 3 feet of snow in a week! I want to be sledding and having snow ball fights in the street. Dubai is a 'cold' 65 degrees. People are bundling up in sweaters and complaining about the cold. Funny how in Chicago people would kill for a 65 degree day and in Dubai people complain.