It’s 10:29 a.m. I’m writing my thoughts down as quickly as possible after The Great Utah ShakeOut drill. Even though I knew the “earthquake” was coming, I decided to go on with my daily activities as if I didn’t know. Here are my thoughts:
10:10 a.m. After picking up groceries and wedding food at Smith’s grocery store, I returned home and backed into my driveway to make it easier to unload the food. It had been raining, but thankfully was easing up. I backed in with my Honda Pilot half way in and half way out.
10:13 a.m. I propped open the door from the garage to the house. Then turned on the television to channel 4, and then 5 to see what was on the news. Of course they were talking about the drill, so I stopped watching and began unloading the groceries. I started with the freezer in the garage. I had 5 bags of ice and 10 containers of ice cream to unload.
10:15 a.m. EARTHQUAKE! It took me longer than I thought to unload, and at 10:15 I was only halfway done. My freezer door was ajar and the back door of my car was still up. The alarm began to go off on the freezer because I had left it open. Mmmm. All of that food might not make it. And the battery to the car could be drained. I ignored all of that, crawled under our very sturdy kitchen table, grabbed hold of the table leg and hung on. Felt a little silly, but counted to 60 which seemed to take forever. My knees began to ache because I was kneeling on tiled floor. Imagine what it would have felt like to stay there for a hour or all day. Ouch! Maybe we should get a rug under that table.
Where was the rest of my family during this quake? We would have been separated all day. Not a happy thought. My 1st grader told me yesterday that she had practiced the Drop, Cover and Hold-On method. Good teacher! I was glad I had made her a school emergency kit. But I sure would have been upset by our separation. What if I couldn’t get out from underneath the table? Bummer.
My two teen daughters would be stuck at the high school. My husband would definitely not be coming home from South Ogden as he would need to stay with his patients at the health and rehab facility he is an administrator for.
My son, daughter-in-law and grandson would be far away in Pleasant Grove, and my almost married son would be in Provo. And most likely not getting married this coming Friday if this had been a bad earthquake. It would be impossible to get to any of them.
Thankfully my married daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter would be in California and not feel this earthquake. My daughter is our out-of-state contact who we would each try to call if we could. I realized my cell phone was on the couch and not with me under the table. I think I will keep my phone on me from now on.
I wondered what my dog would have done outside on the back deck. Hopefully the deck would still be standing and she would be okay. I’m glad I always leave more water than she needs in her bucket.
With the garage door up just over my car hood, that could have come smashing down. The cold air began coming into the house because I had left the door ajar to unload groceries, and would reach me under the table. Imagine if it had been winter.
Imagine, imagine, imagine. I appreciate the state of Utah for putting this on to help us become better prepared.