Sunday’s Earthquake
Comments: 13
There’s a story about the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 that involves the Imperial Hotel wherein a female guest, soaking in the bath when the earthquake strikes, rides the tub all the way to the street as the building collapses. She steps out of the tub amid the rubble, naked but unhurt.
It never happened during the earthquake of ‘23, of course, it’s just a story — and as far as I know it’s never happened anywhere at all. But on Sunday night the tectonic powers that be took another shot at making it come true.
After spending all day in front of the computer I had just settled into a very hot bath to scald away the tension that builds up in your shoulders after long stretches at the keyboard. It had just started raining outside, heavily, and the sound of rain on the roof was having its usual soporific effect. So I’m starting to relax and my head is lolled back on the edge of the tub and then comes a … a feeling, faint but definitely there, almost a vibration like a big truck is passing, except outside the only sound is the rain.
A second elapses in which I realise this feeling is not coming from me. During earthquakes you seem to become extremely aware of your thought processes (perhaps it’s the radon seeping up from the ground activating generally unavailable cortices) and I spend this second analysing the vibration to see whether it’s a rapid (and unprecedented) little series of myoclonic releases from the muscles in my legs and bum triggered as the heat of the water takes effect.
In no more than a second I’ve determined that it’s not and as I realise that it must be an earthquake, the earthquake proper strikes and I’m sloshing in a deep bath full of water! Sloshing! The tremors, long horizontal waves but kind of punchy, are actually nudging me back and forth a centimetre or two across the bottom of the bath on my bum, and buoyancy (Japanese baths are deep and I’ve filled this one to the top so I have considerable buoyancy) is mitigating the friction that would otherwise make this an unpleasant experience. It’s like I’m in a washing machine set to handle the delicate stuff. Usually you can throw me in with the jeans and towels, so I’m quite enjoying this, it’s completely new.
I spend 3 seconds realising that I’m enjoying it and then verbalising this enjoyment to myself in my head out of sheer amazement (“Hoo! I’m being sloshed back and forth and there are waves!”) but I’m also — and this is secondary at this point — trying to get a feeling for the earthquake’s intentions and whether I should go into standard earthquake behaviour mode, the reflex specifics of which depend on where in the house everybody is when it strikes. The fourth second of this segment sees me struck with the realisation that there is no entry for bathtub in my repertoire of reflexes, and an element of doubt creeps in.
But, hey, is it ever relaxing! I’m thinking I could get used to this. If there was a coin slot beside the bath where you put money in to make this happen, I’d be like those zombies hunched over machines in Vegas. So I spend another moment or two trying to decide what I should do (I’m less clear about elapsed time here because this sort of vacillation inevitably interferes with temporal perception).
I really don’t want to get out of the bath but the earthquake is starting to feel a bit like the drunk at the bar when you don’t know which way he’ll go (best friend for life or clock you), and we live in an old wooden house — there’s my decision right there. I jump out of the bath, wrap a towel around me and charge into the living room to find my wife poised to grab our daughter and make a break for it.
So there I stand, dripping wet, face a mixture of mild disappointment and anxiety, naked but for a towel in the middle of an earthquake, pouring rain outside, trying to remember where my pants are.
I didn’t ride that bathtub down through the rubble to the street because luckily there was no rubble. But I did ride it a little way, and like the woman at the Imperial Hotel, I got to step out of it naked and unhurt. Perhaps that’s as far as a bathtub should be ridden.
Until, of course, the next time….
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.05.14 (Wed) • 00:42
Comments
Posted by Jesper 2003.05.14, 01:08
Nice. Hope you’re all okay.
Posted by Hans 2003.05.14, 01:53
Well written. I can appreciate your experience as I am in San Francisco. There’s been several “uh, oh” moments when I thought a big one was coming. Luckily, staying stable for now.
Posted by Nancy 2003.05.14, 06:02
I’m glad to read that you are unharmed if a bit … agitated.
Posted by M 2003.05.14, 08:46
I flet an earthquake not long ago while working at the computer and it was like beenig sitted in a vibrating chair ; )
Posted by Garrett 2003.05.14, 11:24
I lived in Seattle, Washington until about 6 years ago. I’ve been in two earthquakes that were strong enough to feel, and both situations were polar opposites.
The first time was near 1994, and occurred during a trip to the airport to pick up my mother who was arriving from, coincidentally, San Francisco. I was standing, as well as several other people including small children, next to a 20x20 foot window in Sea-Tac Airport looking out at a runway just after dark when the earthquake hit. It was small, but instantly sent a ripple through the large window, once which created a sound—that sound that you hear in movies when power-lines ripple—that almost seemed to murmur “Get away from the window.” It was only about 10 seconds and it was over.
The second time was a few years later and occurred half-way through a great episode of ER. I was sitting on the floor, as I seemed to do a lot at the time, and suddenly I felt myself vibrating. Then, slowly, the vibration turned into a rocking back and forth motion for about 20 seconds before easing back into vibration and then ending.
In both cases no one was hurt (that I can remember), although in the latter a few location businesses did lose some glass products.
I moved to New Jersey a year or two later, and shortly thereafter Seattle has one of its largest earthquakes, one which actually caused severe damage to some buildings.
If you don’t get hurt, earthquakes can be an interesting experience—glad you and your family didn’t.
Posted by lil 2003.05.14, 11:44
Jeremy, you certainly have a way with words :-) That has to be the funniest thing I have read in ages…if there’s one situation I wouldn’t want to be in, it’s being caught naked after a big quake! I don’t think my little apartment would hold up in the big one either, but being on the 2nd floor (1st floor for you Aus/NZ/UK English speakers), my place would probably collapse on top of my 80 year old landlady, leaving me unscathed.
Posted by Gunnar 2003.05.14, 16:38
Man! I always miss the fun stuff. Since I live in Sweden and that perticular country has settled itself in the middle of one of those tectonic plates… so I’ve never even felt and earthquake, unless you count the trembling from when they detonate a couple of tons of TNT in the mines that were under the house I used to live in a couple of years ago. I’d love to slosh around for a while… ;P
Posted by Jeff 2003.05.14, 21:50
This will date me but it’s worth the story.
The very first memory of my life was being in the biggest earthquake in Southern California in the 20th century.
All I remember is being in my crib looking out the window, watching the park next door go “rolling” by. Then my mother came in and grabbed me.
In the 80s I was visiting my sister who lived right on the San Andreas fault, just south of San Jose. Suddenly the earth started to shake. I ran to get her 2 year old daughter. She, however, ran to bolster the stereo. When I asked about her split-second choice, she replied “It’s the only thing not paid for.”
Posted by qB 2003.05.14, 23:38
What a wonderful description of crisis slo-mo. I laughed first, then felt guilty because of the potential seriousness.
Wasn’t there a similar apocryphal story about some Tory grandee descending through the hotel in their bath after the Brighton bomb?
I slept through the famous Hendon earthquake of a couple of years ago. But then I also slept through the famous hurricane. (Anywhere other than England these would probably have been known as a very slight tremor and a bad storm).
Posted by Jay 2003.05.15, 00:44
You’re always good for a nice read. I really enjoy this particular post. Living in central europe I don’t experience that much earthquakes, and when disaster strikes it always catches me doing the usual thing: sitting in front of the computer. :-|
Hope you and you’re family are well and doing fine.
Posted by Adam 2003.05.15, 10:21
I was looking forward to the happy ending, where your entire family jumps into the specially designed and reinforced quake-tub for some butt-sliding fun!
Imagination. It’s a wonderful thing
Posted by kristen 2003.05.15, 13:52
Brilliant description!
Posted by Vic 2003.05.17, 04:25
dammit…cool shit like this never happens where I live. all we get are freakin’ tornadoes…and the wabbling siren warnings make it impossible to be struck by surprise by one those….
ummm…why the hell do i want a natural disaster to strike down my neihborhood anyway???
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