7.3 in PNG

I was in the middle of troubleshooting my email servers when a long violent quake hit. Don't know the stats yet, but guessing it was in the 6's.

Possibly the most violent quake we've had here, and I recalled from years ago that a big quake made the server room racks jostle... so instinctively I dashed to the server room, and pressed my feet against the door jamb and my arms against the server racks.

My co-worker caught a clip of it, but by then it was rather calm, those racks were all over the place, until I stopped them.

At one point there was a big 'boom', and I ducked, but it turned out to be a loose floorboard that went.

Someone asked me "at what point do you say 'leave the servers and protect yourself?' and I replied "I suppose when something hits me in the head." Nothing did.

I can survive a scrape or two, but damaged servers will mean days of work for me....

Of course at home all was well, some paper spilled on the floor.

The biggest damage risk is a fallen power line, or a burst water tank uphill from you. Thus far, no reports of bad damage have come in.

I'm from California. I've been near the Loma Prieta 6.9 in October of 1991, the Eastridge 7.0, and now the PNG 7.3 in the Eastern Highlands, and let me tell you, I prefer the PNG 7.3 to the California 6.9 WOW what a huge difference. The land didn't split here, buildings didn't topple. My servers started rocking, some paper fell on the floor, and that was it.

I went outside to hear two men, their hair now white, who have been here well over 2 decades and said 'that was the strongest one I've ever felt here.'.

So, for those wishing to come here, not from quake country. Yes we have quakes. We don't have big animals of prey. (nothing larger than a small dog) We don't have tornadoes. We have rain, quakes. If you're from California, come on over, the quakes are docile here!


http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc00076e5.php