Nisqually Earthquake, February 28th, 2001, by C.S.W.

From MemoryArchive

Who: C.S.W. (middle school student at the time)
What: Nisqually 7+ Earthquake
When: February 28th 2001
Where: Seattle, WA Central District/Chinatown

My friends and I were eating lunch in our Middle School's lunchroom. The lunch room had a big curved roof with support beams running side to side and the tables we sat at were round laminated plywood or particle board or something like that. I stood up to reach for an oreo that the girl across the table from me was offering. Just as I got to my feet I felt uneasy and unsteady. I looked up and everyone else had the same confused expression on their face as I must have. After that pause of a few moments someone shouted "Earthquake!" theatrically and shrieked and other people chimed in with the shrieking. We all ducked under the tables. My friends and I crouched on our knees facing towards the center of the table. We all held on to one of the four legs of the table. The shaking was violent enough to make the table resist our grip. I had been in another earthquake a few years earlier in Seattle and obviously had survived so my thought during this earthquake was "Cool." I thought it was fun. Like an amusement park ride in the lunchroom. The shaking stopped after what felt like thirty seconds or so. A small but long crack in the floor had run under one boy during the earthquake. Other than that long split in the tiles no damage seemed to have been done. We all stayed under the tables at the rather frantic urging of one of our administrators. I stayed under the table but reached with one of my arms around to the top of the table and felt around for any food. I found an oreo, brought it back under the table and ate it. Once the teachers and administrators had determined the building wasn't about to collapse they led us outside to the playground and the sidewalks surrounding the school building. Every kid knows how boring the practically monthly fire drills and earthquake drills are so I think it was surprising to us that we did actually instinctively and seriously use the knowledge from the drills. We actually did duck and cover and we actually did calmly exit the building. Outside it was cold but not too bad. The school staff must have been dreading the imminent wave of parent phone calls. We stayed outside for maybe half an hour and eventually were let back into the building. Math class was not cancelled. I was very upset.