Maire and I have just experienced an earthquake! We are here in San Diego for the weekend after the SITE conference. We had just been on a boat tour of the harbour and at some time before I was due to pick up a rental car. We decided to go to Borders bookshop to have some coffee and relax. Unusually I ordered frozen coffee and a cake – as they often do the server took my name and said he’d call me when it was ready. I heard “Leon” and presumed it was for me and made my way to the counter.
Woo! Woo! Woo! the earth began to shift. Maire got very flustered. I was a bit calmer. But the experience lasted maybe 30 seconds. It’s a very strange feeling. I experienced it once before in Athens in 1980. This was more sustained.
The intercom in the store asked us to leave. Contrary to what we’re supposed to do I made sure to collect my rucksack. People were very orderly as we all left the building. Outside we stood for several minutes while those with iphones checked their apps for updates. I remembered I had a camera and took some footage posted below. You get a sense of the nervous laughter and the very professional manner in which the Borders manager informed us of what was happening.
For the rest of the day people here were a bit on-edge. Yes the Californians may be used to tremors but this was big enough. We watched some of the news channels and realised that there were several quakes. At time of writing no one seems to have been injured.