Trip Reports - Catman Survives The Great Vegas Quake!

The following is from Catman and he requested that I post it here:

"There I was, sound sleep in my bed at the Las Vegas Hilton early Saturday morning when all of a sudden I sense the bed is shaking. I know there' s no one else in the room (as far as I know) and it wakes me up.

IN my head, I go though several thoughts:

*I'm really cold for blasting the air conditioning.
*All that Sam Adams Beer really had an affect on me and is making my head spin.
*I'm experiencing my first earthquake.

SO I wake up and hear the walls in my bathroom MOAN! Everything is vibrating and shaking. So I walk around the room and look outside and see the buildings at downtown Vegas shaking as well.

The whole rocking and rolling lasts about two minutes. Then I decide to get dressed and find out what the heck happened.

There are a few half dressed people and cute women in robes roaming the halls. One guy in his boxer shorts comes out of his room across from mine, looks around and says "I'm going back to bed."

I decide to do some Journalistic investigative work. Like an idiot, I take the glass elevator down to the main floor where I see a lot of people walking outside the hotel. There were dozens of people outside and I hear many conflicting stories about how serious the quake was.

It didn't seem serious to me.

I found a very good looking waitress who when I asked if that rocking of the hotel was part of an early morning show said "NO, that was an earthquake and I'm *SORRY*" I said what do you have to apologize for, it's Mother Nature who has to apologize.

Thinking the slots will be particularly generous, decide to play them. Down some bucks later, I go back to bed.

IF I find a bar tonight... I'll go sing "I WILL SURVIVE!"

http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

some geologist should be able to tell you/me to which side (numbers) the roulette table will lean towards during aftershakes.

Glad you are well. I'd heard of this early Saturday morning and understand many hotels had burst water pipes and such. Timing is everything, eh Catman.

Glad to hear your OK and you will be ready for the NY bash. Thought maybe I'd lost a roomie. See you Friday night.

Cheers Scott

I'm in LA where this was definitely a strong earthquake, but nothing compared in intensity to the Northrige Quake in 1994, or the 1992 Landers Quake (near where this Quake was). But it was strong nonetheless. I see that the earth move about 15 out on the fault line. That was some movement.

i was in LA for the '94 northridge quake and i'm in LA again now, so i experienced the "hector" quake this weekend. both times i was on a high floor of a hotel.

the '94 quake was violent - with the TV set flying across the room, lamps falling to the floor, and much broken glass in the bathroom.

it was a truly life altering experience.

saturday's quake - while technically three times more powerful - felt like a much more gentle quake in los angeles proper. it's epicenter was 120 miles east of LA in an unpopulated area. and while there was some swaying and shaking... it was nothing like that northridge quake.

i must admit... i actually slept through this one!

Most of the L.A. area quakes don't cause much more than a rumble in Las Vegas, just like the nuclear tests 60-70 miles North of L.V. used to. But this one was about halfway between L.A. and L.V.

Ten years ago today, I was in San Francisco for that 7.0 quake (no, it wasn't the reason I went http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif), and when I got back to the hotel (Embassy Suites in Burlingame) the day after the quake, we discovered that the "damage" in the rooms increased the further up you went... i.e. first floor rooms had no apparent change, up to the sixth floor rooms, which had drawers flown out of dressers, some overturned TV's, etc.

My group was lucky... another hotel in the area had collapsed elevator shafts and was closed for years. The Bay Area ft'ers will know what I mean.

Well, I did survive the earthquake. I figure if it's my time then it's my time. Not then.

And the slots were even more greedy. I could not hit Megabucks if I tried.

Looking back, it was the most interesting thing to happen to me on this Vegas trip.

Thank you Bruddar PremEx for posting this report. And as an added bonus, you are Acting CMDR Catcop fo rthis following weekend (if you so accept this honor!)