I put this on fB too but I am still shaking too.  Stuff falling, moving shaking!!!  I got upstairs and got FuzzyButt because he fell off his ramps so he is with me now.  I called Erik who is still at the University about an hour away and they shook too!!!! OMG!

Holy smokes, Huli!  Are you okay now?

Yes, MUCH better.  I’ll feel better though once I know my little sister is safe and my brother-in-law.  I’m not supposed to call her at work and no e-mail there either.  I asked my niece who is on Facebook if everyone was okay but as soon as she saw it was her aunt she removed the post immediately and continued to chat with her friends.  I tried calling out but after being able to get Erik through landline, I could not reach anyone else on a landline OR cell because these were flooding.  So basically the only connection I had was on Facebook since the internet uses a different kind of service and my niece refused to talk to me (I think it embarrasses her if anyone but her ‘friends’ are there because she won’t be cool. 

My advice in emergencies: Use cellphone text messages. They squeeze through on only a teensy amount of signal or bandwidth.

Looks like it was about a 5.8 or so. Not too shabby. Usually not much damage from those. You guys are in a region not known for earthquakes, though, so the usual precautions we take for granted here in CA aren’t in place. Looks like no major injuries, and minor damage, though the pentagon had some burst pipes..

It was a 5.9 with an epicenter near D.C. (From the news reporting I briefly glanced at.)

Glad you, Erik and Fuzzybutt are okay, Huli. Hope everyone else is, too.

hulitoons - 23 August 2011 02:57 PM

Yes, MUCH better.  I’ll feel better though once I know my little sister is safe and my brother-in-law.  I’m not supposed to call her at work and no e-mail there either.  I asked my niece who is on Facebook if everyone was okay but as soon as she saw it was her aunt she removed the post immediately and continued to chat with her friends.  I tried calling out but after being able to get Erik through landline, I could not reach anyone else on a landline OR cell because these were flooding.  So basically the only connection I had was on Facebook since the internet uses a different kind of service and my niece refused to talk to me (I think it embarrasses her if anyone but her ‘friends’ are there because she won’t be cool. 

Dare I say maybe somebody should have a talk to your niece about when other things are more important than being “cool”?

I don’t have a cell phone but have wanted one so maybe now’s a good time to get one.  I wasn’t able to call any of the cellphone numbers to family and friends though and apparently no one could use theirs in the region either in part because the lines/servers were flooded.  The landlines after my first call to Erik were flooded as well.  I tried calling one number after the other and nothing.

My sister and brother-in-law were apparently VERY unhappy with my niece and steps were taken.  My brother-in-law was in fact home BUT the phones were not working so the ONLY way I could know was through my niece. 

We got emergency calls from the County to make sure we check all building foundations for visible cracks inside and out. 

Yep. Check foundations, make sure the house hasn’t shifted off any post-style foundations (we pretty much ONLY do slab-style in CA). Carefully sniff around all gas lines, to make sure there’s no leaks. Be careful opening storage closets and the like, as things may have shifted to the point it’s like the classic comedy sketch with everything falling out..

My advice is to get a prepaid cellphone, if you’re not planning on using it on a daily basis. They’re a lot cheaper, though you usually have to pay a small fee to ‘maintain’ your account. It’s always good to have on hand for emergencies, though.

When you get one, make sure your address book has a listing for ‘ICE’ or ‘Emergency’, which should be someone who is enormously capable should you be, say, injured badly and the EMTs have to figure out who to notify. Also see if your local 911 dispatch has a dedicated cell number, and put that in. Don’t *call* it, mind you, but often times if you dial 911 from a cell, you wind up getting the local sherriff’s dispatcher rather than your local.

Beyond that.. you can probably just go to the local cell place and say “I want the most basic, bog-standard, easy to use phone you got, with the simplest, cheapest plan you offer”, and see if you like what they have.

Of course, if you want a REALLY simple phone, I reccomend John’s Phone. It doesn’t do texts, though. http://www.johnsphones.com/

It wouldn’t hurt to have a cheap reliable mobile phone as long as the phone bills were small. They are really handy for emergencies. If you can get one that’s cheap with texting as well that would be good.

I have an iPhone but that’s more than a lot of people would need for emergencies.

I have a Straight Talk phone (exclusive to Wal-Mart).  A month of unlimited talk, text, and web is $45 (sales tax may apply in your area).  They also have a $30 card that allows for 1000 minutes of talk time, don’t know how much web and text that includes, though.  Besides these options, you can also buy 3 and 6 month cards at Wal-Mart, and 1 year cards online, as well as now being able to buy international time.  The thing I really like about Straight Talk was that when my last month of time expired a few months ago, I still wound up being able to access the internet with it for another two months.