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M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#171

Post by rprospero »

nostrademons wrote: post #144
dylan604 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but at some point, you have to be told what "duck, cover, hold" actually means. Your comment as the first comment someone hears is like a news article using acronyms throughout the article without ever expanding the acronym.

It's relatively self-explanatory. The full expansion would be " Duck under a table or other rigid object. Cover your head. Hold on."

Even more self-explanatory is "Duck into the bathroom. Cover the toilet seat with toilet paper. Hold your bladder until you're on the toilet."

I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to be holding onto. Do I briefly cover my head with my arms, then stop covering my head to hold onto the table? Do I hold onto my head while I cover it? Do I cover my loved one's head and they cover mine, sharing our last moments in a loving hold?

Now I'm beginning to wonder if I made a massive assumption that I would be covering my head with my hands. That's what I would do during a tornado, but maybe I'm supposed to be covering my head with a blanket so my hands are free for the hold on part?

Honestly, my facetious hold my bladder advice seems more apropos than anything I've managed to come up with for part three.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#172

Post by devb »

mmmmmbop wrote: post #134
cute_boi wrote: post #94

I got alert after 10 mins of earthquake .....:(

Yeah I found that pretty strange. I felt the earthquake, and searched Google for "earthquake nyc" results in the last hour - found nothing. 10 or 20 minutes later my phone starts buzzing informing me that there had been an earthquake. Seems rather pointless.

I think the alert is to try to get people to stop calling the police to ask/inform them about what they felt.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#173

Post by gorlilla »

jjulius wrote: post #154
dylan604 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but at some point, you have to be told what "duck, cover, hold" actually means. Your comment as the first comment someone hears is like a news article using acronyms throughout the article without ever expanding the acronym.

What a strange comment - I strongly doubt that schools are teaching that phrase without simultaneously expanding on what the phrase means. Introduce the phrase, explain it at the deeper level, then move forward with using the phrase once the students have been taught its deeper meaning. Why flippantly assume that that's not being done? I grew up on the west coast and that's exactly how it was taught to us in public s…

Midwest and we have a similar process for tornadoes.. and nuclear bombs.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#174

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #82

For those of you who didn't grow up in earthquake country, some tips: DO NOT get into a doorway, that's a myth. It's not a terrible place to be if it's a doorless frame, but if there is a door, it's more likely you get injured from the door smacking you than the earthquake. DO get under a strong table. That's the safest place to be in a quake if it happens when you are indoors. If you're outside get as far away from…

[deleted]

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#175

Post by spike021 »

spopejoy wrote: post #53

I'm in Brooklyn and felt it while on a call with an NJ resident who was the first to say "are we having an earthquake??" Do earthquakes have a propagation speed? Might she have felt it before me?

Yes. Last time there was a fairly large one in the SF Bay Area I happened to be on the phone with some relatives about 40 miles away and I felt an earthquake a moment before they did.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#176

Post by duxup »

nostrademons wrote: post #148
duxup wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose depending on the structure and the individual's inclination strong table might be a good call. But in my single family home situation it really doesn't take more than a few seconds and I can be out the door provided I'm not knocked off my feet entirely type situation.

Being out the door is usually riskier than being inside a wood-frame SFH. You're exposed to falling trees, branches, power lines, and roof debris, as well as unsecured cars or other loose items. Wood-framed 1-2 story SFHs almost never collapse in an earthquake; the wood can bend to absorb the shock, and there's a lot of redundancy in the studs, and not a whole lot of weight on floors above you.

I guess I'm fortunate / unfortunate that my outdoors ... doesn't have a lot of that.

It might be interesting to somehow determine earthquake injuries / ability to get in or outdoors and measure the real risk from actual events.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#178

Post by sensanaty »

duxup wrote: post #107
jedberg wrote: post #82

For those of you who didn't grow up in earthquake country, some tips: DO NOT get into a doorway, that's a myth. It's not a terrible place to be if it's a doorless frame, but if there is a door, it's more likely you get injured from the door smacking you than the earthquake. DO get under a strong table. That's the safest place to be in a quake if it happens when you are indoors. If you're outside get as far away from…

I suppose depending on the structure and the individual's inclination strong table might be a good call. But in my single family home situation it really doesn't take more than a few seconds and I can be out the door provided I'm not knocked off my feet entirely type situation.

You really shouldn't run out the door during and immediately after (as in, as soon as it seems to have stopped) large earthquakes. The building, structurally, will most likely be fine (unless it's a truly massive one in an area that doesn't get massive earthquakes normally), however the facade and whatever else is on the outside of the building probably won't be. Think roof shingles, billboards, windows, planter boxes, trees, powerlines, antennae...

Plus you'd be surprised how hard it is to even stand straight during particularly strong quakes yet alone walk/run, there's no possible description I can give to explain adequately how strange it is to feel the ground underneath your feet shaking violently, especially in buildings.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#180

Post by pixl97 »

swozey wrote: post #142
MisterTea wrote: post #88

Holy shit what a ride! Sitting at home in my office in Ozone Park NYC and I hear what I think is a low flying plane coming in to JFK. Happens when weather is bad and they come in lower they can rattle my windows. But the intensity grew suddenly and my entire house was shaking and everything was rattling. At first I froze for a few seconds as I could not make sense of what I was experiencing - but it was clear this wa…

I've never been in an earthquake it's got to be such a strange thing to experience the first time. Hearing tornado sirens for the first time was wild, especially as a Silent Hill fan. On the other hand my friend moved to Brooklyn from Haiti after their terrible quake so he's in a mood right now.

A number of decades ago I took a trip out to California for the first time and we had reached our friends house pretty late. After driving for 12+ hours straight I passed out on the floor.

In the middle of the night I was awoken by what I thought was a large truck out front, like a garbage truck or something. But it kept getting closer and more intense and everything started shuffling around in the house with a shik-shik-shik-shik noise and the blinds started rapping off each side of the window sill. When you experience something new like this where your brain kind of spins around in circles not knowing what to do, then it came back with the answer of Earthquake! which I involuntarily yelled out loud. My next thought was "Is this going to get worse, and what do I do if it does". I was in a new place that I had barely even looked at before falling asleep. Thankfully it subsided after 20 seconds or so without any major incident. Was hard to fall back to sleep that night.

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