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Health & Fitness

Where Were You When the Earthquake Struck?

Undoubtedly, the talk of the town for the next few days will be centered around the earthquake. And the most asked question: Where were you when it struck?

The question of the day is inevitably - "Where were you when the earthquake struck?" Well, at 1:53 pm, I was at my kitchen sink doing post-lunch dishes and thinking what a beautiful day it was. My husband was working from home. My son was upstairs in his room, kicking his legs on the floor while working on his latest Lego creation.  We had already reminded him a few times to "stop kicking!".

Then, it seemed like entire house was vibrating. Glasses were clinking in the cupboards and I had to struggle a bit to maintain my balance. My pre-schooler sat in the family room watching tv, completely unfazed.

My husband walked briskly over to the stairs to shout up to our son to stop the kicking, yet at the same time with an expression of bewilderment as to how a ten year old could shake the entire house. I decided at that moment it was either an earthquake or a top secret military drill. 

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At the time, it felt as though the shaking lasted several minutes, but I suppose it was more like fifteen seconds. I immediately texted my neighbor to see if it was just our house—I don't know why this was even a possibility, but things didn't seem rational at the moment. My text failed. Cell phone service was not working. I turned on the news—nothing.  Logged onto Facebook, but there was no mention of it.  What was going on?  Was it just us?

Within minutes, the news caught up to the event and it was all over TV and Facebook. A 5.9 magnitude earthquake had struck Virginia.

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We were glued to the news, mainly for reassurance. It was surreal to watch the footage of the evacuated buildings and people looking shellshocked. There was a sense of deja vu and the question hanging in the air—did that really just happen?

As the location of the center of the earthquake was released, there was more shock.  We have spent our summer weekends down at Lake Anna, Virginia for the past several years, in a sleepy little town called Bumpass. In fact, we were just there as recently as Sunday, cruising past the North Anna Nuclear Power plant without a care in the world. And there it was -plastered all over the news—our little home away from home. There is a page on Facebook that I subscribe to called "Bumpass isn't on the map." Well, it sure is now.

On Thursday, we will be heading down to Lake Anna to see if we sustained any damage and to enjoy our last weekend of the season on the lake. That is, unless Hurricane Irene stops us. 

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