Geoffrey's Blog: August 2011

It was seven or eight minutes before 2:00 yesterday when I felt it. I had just gotten back from lunch outside across the street at Jake's with my boss Sharon and we were still settling in. I was trying to catch up on Twitter and Sharon called home to reach her babysitter to check in on the baby (she had just returned from maternity leave the day before).

I felt a little movement at my desk but didn't immediately think much of it. I can often feel people walking by, especially when they're delivering mail or when someone is walking quickly into my office. But the shaking lasted more than just a second or two. Maybe someone was rolling some sort of cart with heavy packages? Nope. I noticed that the floor lamp in front of me (which I've never turned on in the almost one year that I've worked at CBS 2... it's not plugged in) was swaying slightly. I felt sort of dizzy, or at least thought I felt dizzy. It kind of reminded me of the shaking you'd feel in the upper decks of Shea Stadium sometimes. So my first reaction was to tweet.

Then I quickly thought: "Hmm, wouldn't it be cool if this is an earthquake? But it's probably not." I remember a Saturday or Sunday morning around 2002 when an earthquake happened up in Plattsburgh. I was on the couch watching TV when my mom came from upstairs asking, "Did you feel that?" I hadn't felt a thing. She was in the bathroom and heard the shower doors rattle suddenly. As this was before Twitter and Facebook, we actually had to wait a few minutes until we heard confirmation of the earthquake on WCBS NewsRadio 880. I was disappointed I had missed that one so I thought yesterday: "Finally!"

I went into Sharon's office next to mine and asked, even though she was on the phone, "Do you feel that?" She said no. Then I felt bad for interrupting. But then some of the sales people on the floor were asking if others felt shaking. One of them asked me to call downstairs to Security to find out what that was. Seemed like a weird request to me but before I could, Sharon said, "They feel it in Queens!" So that's when it was clear that we were feeling an earthquake.

The shaking stopped and we all looked around, probably thinking what I was thinking: "Hmm, I guess that's kind of cool." Then one of the sales women, located next to a stairwell we never use, shouted, "They're all running down the stairs!" Someone else said, "Let's get out of here, guys!" I hadn't thought of evacuating because the earthquake was over but then, as she said that, I thought about the possibility of structural damage and figured if everyone else was leaving, I would, too. Sharon reminded me to bring my phones and backpack just in case we didn't get to go back inside that day. And then we went down the stairs.

Now, these stairs are never used by any of us so we were sort of disoriented after going down the two flights. We ended up in some area that was under construction. Some thought to maybe try going down one more level. But then I realized that this looked familar. It was the space that they're turning into more offices for the network news. I only knew this because I had been given a tour of the network facilities less than two weeks ago and was pretty sure I knew the way out. So I led. (One of the sales bosses later jokingly said something like: "Thank god for Geoffrey for getting us out of there or else we all might have died.")

Going through the hallway, we saw tons of other people escaping. There was no panic but we were trying to go quickly. There was one older man who was being helped as we slowly walked and some people ran around. Someone came on the loudspeaker saying that they had received reports that the building had shaken but I don't think any information was provided yet except to let people know that they knew (and to stop calling). I checked Facebook on my phone and saw lots of statuses asking if anyone else felt it or announcing that it was an earthquake. One friend said he felt it in DC. I think that was the first time I got nervous. I started to think about how strong it must've been and how many people must be hurt.

We finally got outside to safety and stood right next to the buildings. I guess if they were going to come down, they'd still get us. I saw other people across the street filing out as well. Most everyone was on their cell phones, and most of them were not getting through. I decided to stick to Twitter and Facebook. I quickly got a text from my dad at home on Long Island asking if I felt it and one from my friend Matt in Los Angeles who suddenly saw a ton of statuses on Facebook and wanted to know if I, being the news nerd that I am, could confirm anything. Then my dad texted me again, saying a preliminary report had it at a 6.0 magnitude centered near Charlottesville, VA (where I was visiting my friend Kim this month two years ago). And then I was sad that I was outside missing the news coverage.It was now around 2:00, right when a new wave of reporters comes to work, and at least two of them were talking to people to find out what was going on. And everyone else just chatted and kept providing updates on what they were hearing. Luckily, nothing included anything about severe damage and, most importantly, nothing was heard about injuries.Two fire trucks with lights and sirens pulled up, coming from both ends of the street. We had smelled something weird on the way out, maybe gas, and I guess they were there to make sure we weren't going to blow up. I think it was around 2:25 when they announced that we could go back inside so everyone did. I don't understand the people who took elevators up but I work on only the third floor and I guess most of those people worked higher up.

When I got back to work, I turned on our coverage and also flipped around. I had been glued to CNN's coverage all morning of the Libyan rebels gaining access to Gadhafi's compound. It was very compelling stuff. But now that was blown out for earthquake coverage. I was again glad to see that there didn't seem to be any serious injuries or damage.