Here are two events to document and tell you folks about. One of them was a Tornado, another is an Earthquake. They happened on different dates, not at the same time, luckily.
The tornado.
I remember the date well, but not because it made an impression on me, though it did do that. Mainly, it's because I documented the event with an audio recording that I named with the date. The audio recording was made with the intention of recording thunder storms that were going to happen on this particular day. It recorded a lot more than that.
The date was September 22, 2016. I think the time was around 03:40 PM, though I don't have that part of it documented. I was listening to something with my noise canceling headphones at the time, and the only indication I received that anything was wrong, was the instant that my computer shut down due to power being knocked out. I removed my headphones and heard a low rumble that sounded like it was moving through my entire apartment. Knowing that thunder storms were imminent, I turned to look out the sliding glass door I have, as my curtain was pulled away from it. I, though I am blind, can see light, and it looked extremely dark, almost like it was night outside. I made my way into my bedroom where the recorder and microphones were positioned, the microphones were on my Window sill, and they were completely dry, so I figured they were okay. It was about a minute later, give or take a few seconds, when I heard what sounded like marbles hitting my sliding glass door, but I knew it was hale. I quickly went into my room and closed my window, then dried my microphones off, while talking about exactly what was happening at that time from my perspective, how the power had gone out and how the hale was something I'd never really heard before, though I tried to keep my disruption of the recording to a minimum.
Once the storm had calmed enough for me to open my sliding glass door again, I eventually heard from neighbors that a tornado had come through the area. I later learned that it was an EF0 or EF1 in strength, and it was later that night when I listened to the recording over headphones to find out what, precisely, had been recorded. It got the roar of the tornado, the sound of an approximate 120HZ tone when the power lines touched and arced, and the sounds of wind blowing and debris being shifted around. The sounds of debris being blown about is in the recording, but much fainter than the rest of the recording was, and because there was so much wind at one time, and due to where the microphones were placed, the recording captured all the effects of the wind, but not the wind itself. The recording turned out very well, but I never want to record anything like that again.
I'll tell you folks one thing, that tornado really sucked. I mean, really, really sucked. The power was out for more than a day. I actually went to spend the next night at my parents house, who I believe did not lose any power and weren't affected by the tornado at all, basically. They got some wind, but nothing else, and nothing to the degree I received.
Because things do tend to change on my site, I don't plan to upload the file to the server, yet. If that changes, I'll update things, of course, perhaps with a dedicated media page of some kind.
The earthquake.
This was my first Earthquake that I've ever experienced. The date was March 18, 2020. The time was around 07:10 AM, I think. Again, I only know the date because I have audio recordings, this time from a friend of mine. Unfortunately, the way he recorded them, in my opinion, was not very good. There was a lot of low frequency content in the recordings that was basically saturating everything or causing a recorders limiter to activate. However, I still have them and I'll occasionally check them out to see what sounds are in them again.
I was getting out of the shower at the time, and preparing to go to work. I remember I was about to get dressed when I heard what sounded like a large thump from above me, from the apartment where my friend lives. My first thought was, what kind of construction project is going on up there, that thump sound and creaking is throughout the entire apartment up there. Who's there and what's going on?
I gripped on to the door frame a moment later, not because of losing balance, but to try and figure out what was going on. That's when I realized I was in an earthquake. The door frame was moving slightly in a rolling motion, and I could feel the ground moving underneith me in a rolling movement. It felt as though someone was rolling the ground in a motion to the left and forward, but also around in a clockwise motion. It's hard to explain exactly what it felt like, and I don't recall precisely what everything was like during that time, as it was 5 years ago.
I remember when I went to work that day, it was unusual, because of the earthquake and the various safety hazards that might exist in the warehouse because of it. At first, people were told to come to work, then they were told not to come to work, and those who had shown up were picked up and returned to their homes. The various individuals I'm referring to, take a service called Paratransit, which allows those with mobility challenges to get a ride from one point to another, it's a door to door service.
Anyway, employees who didn't work in my works warehouse stayed to do the jobs they had to do. At around 08:00 AM, give or take a few minutes, there was an aftershock. This wasn't much, just a thump through the entire building, which I heard and didn't really feel, then creaking sounds as everything settled again. And, I even obeyed my earthquake training, too! I got under my desk! Which, knowing that in front of me is basically a large window and doors made of glass, is probably the best thing I could do.
I do hope I don't get shaken up again, it was a most unstable situation. In fact, I later found videos on line, one of which was a pipe at the airport closer to the earthquake spraying water all over, as it had cracked apart or had otherwise burst in some manner.
That's all for now.
Have fun and don't get sucked into the air or shaken to the core!