SC - earth quake

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

hiya!
boy was that exciting! they asked us to stay off line until the circuits
cleared up....

work got shook pretty good (its on the waterfront in downtown Seattle,
right next to the Alaskan Way Viaduct--the same type of bridge that
collapsed in San Francisco) on fill, in one of those old historic brick
buildings. mucho broken glass, fallen masonry, a broken waterpipe, etc) and
they evacuated us, then sent us home. the HazMat team was all
excited...they got to pull out their special orange vests and shiney new
hardhats! No damage here at home (on rock, about 10 miles north of
downtown)...a plant took a header and the cats were VERY freaked, but other
than that :). I was expecting MUCH worse! Thing is I didnt realise how bad
it was until a friend called me and told me to turn on the news. wow!

you could tell all us ex-californians huddling in doorways while the Plain
Staters wandered around like turkeys in a rain storm....

:)

Officially, they think it was a 6.8, centered about 20 miles south of here
(right by Eduardos house, but he's ok too). Shaking was east-west (all my
kitchen cabinets face north-south. hooray!). It was about 30miles down, so
most of the energy was absorbed. Also, the type of earthquake it was doesnt
tend to have aftershocks, which is good.

I wonder if I go to work tomorrow? probably :(. those hazmat boys have WAY
too much fun to leave it very long....:). something tells me, though, those
poor little cell cultures I left in the centrifuge arent very happy.....

- --AM, who finds it ironic that one of the reasons Seattle fared so well was
all that earthquake retrofitting, courtesy of the US governement, and Bush
this morning presented a new budget that axes the program.....