I Survived The Great 2015 Vancouver Earthquake

On my vacation to the West Coast of Canada last week, I truly feel like I got the full West Coast experience - water, mountains, and to top it all off, an earthquake.

Every now and then we get small tremors here in New Jersey (in fact, there was one just a few days ago in North Jersey), you may have even felt them in the last few years, but it's nothing compared to what they get out West. And for me, who's never experienced a true quake before, it was an interesting experience.

I was in bed at around 11:45 when I felt the building moving.

At first, I thought that maybe a vehicle hit the high rise, but right away I realized that if that was the case I certainly would  have heard a crash of some kind. What was strange and unsettling about this was the fact that, besides the walls creaking, there was no sound.

There was just the briefest moment where I was concerned - I was on the 15th floor of a high rise apartment building and thought, "gosh, how will I get out of this rubble? Will it hurt?". But it was over almost as quickly as it began.

Once everybody realized that something unusual had just happened, we also realized that nobody was hurt and there was no serious damage (although a crack did emerge on a wall).

It was one of those strange experiences where your mind knows what's going on but, being unaccustomed to what it's like, it doesn't make sense right away.

Thankfully, it wasn't a huge earthquake, although it was somewhat significant, measuring in at about 4.9 on the Richter Scale). There were no reported injuries and no significant damage. But, for me at least, it was definitely a new and somewhat unsettling experience.

Have you ever been through an earthquake? Tell us about it in the comments section!