My Most Memorable St. Patrick's Day Yet

    I grew up in Los Angeles for most of my life so the only geohazard I have memorable history with is earthquakes. I’m specifically from the La Brea area, which is near Koreatown and Beverly Hills so I was never relatively at risk for the annual wildfires, another common hazard in California, though that didn’t mean we could escape the heat (when it started snowing for the first time this semester, there have been a couple times when I would mistake falling snow for ash). As for earthquakes, thankfully I didn’t experience any that were catastrophic, let alone incredibly disastrous. The earthquake I remember most took place in 2014 with a magnitude of 4.4 and while that’s not incredibly powerful, it was the first time I felt an earthquake to that intensity. 

    It was a cold Monday morning on St. Patrick’s Day and I was up early with my mom and sister since we had school soon. I was in a bad mood (can’t remember why, probably because it was Monday) and was eating breakfast when all of a sudden the dining table started shaking. I’m not sure how to describe it but it kind of felt as if the ground was rocking back and forth and I was so taken aback that my mind went blank for a second. When I made eye contact with my sister sitting across from me, we immediately understood that we were experiencing an earthquake and scrambled to get under the table. My mom was in the kitchen so I can’t exactly remember what she did, most likely she got in between the link that connects the kitchen and the living room or she also got under the table with us. My bad mood was instantly replaced by fear as my mind began racing through the worst possible scenarios that could happen; my most vivid one being the earthquake getting so strong that the floors above would fall on top of us since we live near the ground floor of an apartment building.

How I imagined the impact from the top floors would be

    Luckily the shaking stopped after a few seconds but I was still trembling when I got out from under the table and went to get ready for school. Once I got to school, everyone was asking each other if they felt the earthquake, which they all confirmed, and the geohazard was a hot topic that day. I later learned that this was the biggest earthquake in Los Angeles since the last aftershocks of the Northbridge quake but luckily no major damage was reported. A classmate did more research and shared with us that a few aftershocks of magnitude 2.7 also occurred, which I didn’t feel but a few students claimed they could on their way to school. I also remember we watched a couple clips from the morning news to see how the anchors were reacting to the earthquake live, to be honest it was kind of funny comparing how each news station handled the situation; obviously during the moment it wasn’t. 

Some of the reactions my classmates and I watched

    Looking back, I do want to give credit to the school system for implementing earthquake drills and teaching us safety tactics while we were still young because my sister and I immediately knew what to do in that situation. That 2014 earthquake was definitely not the only one I’ve experienced as I remember other instances of the hazard at later points in life. Though I will say that that earthquake has made its mark as my most memorable St. Patrick's Day.

Works Cited

CBS Los Angeles. (2014, March 17). 4.4-Magnitude Earthquake Hits In The Sepulveda Pass. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/03/17/4-7m-earthquake-strikes-socal/

Is 4.4 jolt an end to Los Angeles' 'earthquake drought'? (2014, March 17). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-xpm-2014-mar-17-earthquake-47-quake-strikes-near-westwood-california-yxdnr8-story.html

Lloyd, J. (2014, March 18). Magnitude-4.4 Quake Shakes Southern California. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/earthquake-la-magnitude/127840/