"Shake n Bake"

Two earthquakes in the last two days. Both were centered just a mile from Inglewood (even though a lot of news stations are saying they were centered in Inglewood, they were actually in a small town “Lennox” just south of Inglewood). They were on the “Newport-Inglewood” fault line.

The one two days ago was 4.7. I heard it before I felt it. At first I thought a roommate Jay was dropping something upstairs, and then I thought he was falling down the stairs. My first thought was, “Omigosh, I hope he’s okay, we’re gonna have to go to the emergency room.” And then when the rumbling got so loud and the room started shaking with it, I figured it wasn’t Jay.

My other roomate PJ, his friend Lauren, and I were sitting around the kitchen table. We all looked at one another and were like “earthquake?” I got up and started heading toward a doorway when it stopped. I proceeded to embrace Lauren—someone I had barely met. It took me another few minutes to process what just happened.

The one today happened at work. I barely got to the cubicle aisle when it stopped. All my co-workers immediately started blaming the weather. My co-workers say it’s something about this time of year. The hotter it is, the more earthquakes there are, thus "Shake n Bake." A little bit of local wisdom there....

It really adds a new aspect to the oil field issue. There is a group of “radical” residents that would always, in a manner similar to screaming “fire” in a theater, claim “7.0 earthquake” at all hearings related to the oil fields. They were sure that the new water injection techniques used by the oil field near their home and near the Newport-Inglewood fault line were going to cause a 7.0. People would look down upon them because there isn’t much scientific proof of a definite linkage.

But, actually feeling a few lately—and how scary it is—I can really feel their fear in a new way.