7.2 earthquake

I got a lot of texts from friends yesterday checking in to make sure we were okay after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Mexicali. Thank you for your concern - we are okay!

My sister and I were out in the Anza-Borrego desert, two hours from San Diego, when the quake occurred. I did feel the ground tremble but it was subtle; half the group on our tour didn't even feel it.

Jason and Isabelle were home when the quake hit, and the house shook for about a minute. Jason said all the furniture rattled and our floor lamps were swaying back and forth. I guess Isabelle, who was sitting in her highchair, paused while eating and had the funniest look on her face - like "what the heck is happening, dad?!"

No one I know experienced any major damage. Several of the sites at our health system had elevator malfunctions (some of them automatically shut down once the building starts shaking), and there were some cracked windows. A couple of my co-workers throughout the system came into work today and found stuff on their desks or walls had fallen onto the floor.

The good news is that despite the magnitude of the earthquake, the overall damage was relatively minor considering the potential problems if the epi-center had been in a more populated area!