Wednesday, January 28, 2009

State of Emergency and an Earthquake

OK...so much for the 81 degree weather!

We had a bit of snow recently....not what I'd call a blizzard or anything but evidently it was enough for the state to be declared in a state of emergency. Much of what fell was sleet so it made the roads very slippery. There were a lot of accidents in the OK city. Schools were closed all over the state. They don't really do much to the roads here as far as paving goes. Here's Walmart and in this picture yesterday it did not look bad but today it was a slushy mess. About 50 people called in to work because of weather!

I had to work yesterday at 7 in the morning. I got up extra early and let my car run for about a half hour and then figured I'd be ready to go when I finally went out there. Not so. I went out there and it was a sheet of ice. It took me about 30 minutes to scrape off just the front windows. It was so loud when I was out there scraping that early in the morning that I woke up the neighbor guy and he came outside in his pj's and stood in the middle of the street and remarked on all the snow.
This is on my way home from work yesterday. When I got out of work I found that Russell had come to Walmart and warmed up my van. He said it took him about an hour to get his truck all scraped off and warmed up so he could come take care of mine. It was a nice surprise. I bought de-icer before I left work but did not have to use it.
The snow covered up the lines in the road. People were sliding all over the place. I did fine though since I grew up in Massachusetts and was used to driving in the snow.
This is on my ride home.
This is looking out the front door.
Other News:
Russell told me a little while ago that he heard that today at 5 am we had an earthquake. I didn't really believe him. I thought back to this morning. I got up at 4:45 am. At 5:19 when the earthquake occurred I was running a bath. Russell was sleeping. I never heard a thing and neither did he. Here's a bit of the news story. This was just a few miles from where we live.

Earthquake Rumbles Grady County, South of OKC

Posted: Jan 28, 2009 06:20 AM

Updated: Jan 28, 2009 12:30 PM


News9.com

CHICKASHA, Oklahoma -- A 3.4 magnitude earthquake startled residents but did not do any damage this morning in Grady County.

The United States Geological Survey reports that earthquake occurred at 5:19 a.m. about 5 miles northeast of Chickasha. Read the USGS report.

Several people felt the quake southwest of the Oklahoma City metro.

Nancy Hill lives in Amber, about 14 miles north of Chickasha, and said her whole house shook for just a couple of seconds.

"It was just amazing," she said. "The dogs kind of perked their ears up and looked around."

This morning's earthquake is the biggest in the state since 3.8 quake in Lawton in 2002.

An earthquake typically must measure 2.5 to 3 before it is felt people. Magnitude 4 earthquakes have been known to cause moderate damage, according to USGS guidelines.

Alisha Thomas felt the quake at her Blanchard home.

"Everything just started shaking," she said. "My son woke back up. The pictures fell off the wall. It was kind of weird."

Did you feel the earthquake? The Oklahoma Geological Survey wants to hear from you. You can fill out this form on their Web site.


Russell has his own take on this earthquake. There is tons of drilling that goes on in Oklahoma. That leaves empty cavities under the ground. Oil and natural gas are both removed. This would have to have some sort of an effect on the ground here. Here has heard that there are lots of small earthquakes here. It's something I will have to research.

An Experiment:
Yesterday after work Russell was doing some electrical work in the attic and putting in some new outlets. Since it was making the house cold having the attic open I turned the heat up. It was up above 80 and I was still cold. We have two of those digital temperature things and the one on the wall....about 5 feet up said 80 degrees. He put the other one on the floor and after awhile it read 58 degrees. So we know that heat rises but who would have thought that it would be that big of a difference? When he got the power back on we put the ceiling fans back on and that pushes the hot air down. I didn't realize what a difference that made until we did not have them on.

Ok, that's it for now cause Russell is distracting me and I can't write. ;)

Y'all have a good night.

8 comments:

  1. It's easy not to notice a small earthquake. There was one here a few years back. I was up reading and the windows shook a bit (like they would if a VERY big truck had driven by) but other than that there was nothing. I just kept on reading and only found out the next day when I went to my writing class and was asked if I noticed it that there was one. Someone who lived just a few streets away felt their whole house shake, and only a few streets away from her a house actually colapsed. But I hardly noticed anything, and wouldn't even have noticed the windows shaking a bit had I not been sat near them reading at the time. So it's not surprising that you guys didn't feel anything with that earthquake.

    Is there really that much difference with the temperatures? WOW! I figured it would only be maybe 5 degrees at most.

    Did those interview questions ever show up?

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  2. Nice pictures! It looks much the same around here (Philadelphia PA) but they got the roads sort of cleared (they refroze over during the night).

    You are a lucky woman to have a guy that warms up your car for ya. :)

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  3. I love the pictures, thats the kind of weather I want:(

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  4. i never felt earthquake before.. hopefully its not that scary.. i love when it snowing but really dont like walking on the snow ..

    take care
    Godbless you

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  5. We had a tiny earthquake ere in VA a few years ago. I didnt feel it, but my husband did at his work, it even cracked the floor in the warehouse.
    I enjoyed your snow pics!

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  6. Me and Keri miss the snow! (I don't, Keri does.)

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  7. I've been reading, but not posting much. Not much going on in my life at the moment, so I havent had anything to blog about. lol

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  8. The snow is so pretty, but I know it is a pain to drive in it.

    Wow, you don't hear about earth quakes in middle America much do you?

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