TPM Reader AB is a Californian and gives the DC quake his stamp of authenticity:
I happened to be in the Library of Congress doing research with microfilm when the earthquake started. After a few seconds of the initial low level shaking the guy sitting at the machine next to me said, “If we were in California, I’d think this was an earthquake.” Then the heavier shaking started and I said, “I guess this really is one.” …
Now, I’m actually from California, and I’ve been in a number of earthquakes before, enough so that I don’t keep count, and including Loma Prieta in 1989 when I lived in the East Bay. The whole thing, from the initial shaking to the very end felt entirely familiar, in the sense that there was really only one thing it could be. But despite all that, because I’ve never thought of earthquakes happening here or expected one to happen, I have to admit that I still wondered just a bit until I got outside and saw people leaving the other buildings. Still, as I ran through the possibilities in my mind, I really couldn’t imagine what else it could have been. …
I don’t mind a bit of mockery, but I’d say that even by California standards this was still a “real” enough quake.
