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I swear there is a disease called Post Traumatic Earthquake Stress Syndrome and I am suffering from it. I know people from Southern California are laughing at us here in Reno in the freak out zone, but even they aren’t experiencing the phenomenon we are at this time.

While I’m not from earthquake country per say, I know of them and over the 20+ years I’ve lived in the Reno area, I’ve felt one or two basically benign tremors. However, our experts cannot explain our anomaly, and quite frankly even they are concerned that something is going on here that is yet to be determined. Nevada is the third most active state in the nation for earthquakes behind California and Alaska. However, our faults have always been thought to be minor, and that a major quake is pretty unlikely. Seismologists now are thinking that might not be the case. They don’t know if our activity might signal that dreaded “Big One” coming to Southern California, or we have some new and previously unnoticed heavy activity about to happen here. Our movements are shakers, not rollers, and are stated to be just tectonic plate movements, and that our quakes have nothing to do with volcanic activity. There are no volcanoes in the Reno area.

My luck has it that I live in the neighborhood just below all the epicenters. We’ve LITERALLY had HUNDREDS of earthquakes in the last couple of months. Strange thing is…they are getting more frequent, and growing in size as each day goes by. A week before our swarm started, a 6.0 quake shook the rural town of Wells, NV clear across the state. No one knows if that event is related to ours or not, but tremors continue there, and we are just being inundated by them on a daily basis. The Wells event caused $750,000 in damage to historical buildings and structures in this isolated tiny town.

The first month or so of our quake clusters we did not feel any of them here at my house. Then they started coming. Some little boomers and quick rattles. We would giggle a bit and go; “Wow”…that was an earthquake. Well that was all fine until they started coming more often and kept getting bigger. NOW…at least 3-4 or even sometimes 10 or more times a day we feel the tremors and rumbles in my home. I’m done with this already, and my nerves are shot.

Late Friday night we got hit with a 4.7, the largest quake since 1953. My house shook horribly and shit flew around. I took photos, and then put the camera down and cleaned up all the mess and debris. Thankfully I had no real damage other than chaos and clean up. However in my state of fright and excitement I later discovered that I took all my photos without a card in my camera! All my cabinet doors were open; things fell about, all my drawers’ flung open, and water splashed out of my fish tank that has a lid on it. I have a stereo that holds 400 CD’s, and in a split second the door flung open and 58 CD’s crashed to the floor. I watched my chandeliers sway and my walls creak back and forth. I went to bed hoping to get some rest because I had to be at the GOP convention the next morning at 7am and this all happened at midnight. Oh NO…every hour or so more quakes came, and two of them in the 3.3-3.5 range which are still pretty good rattlers.

The fun continues. We’ve had three or four more today, but all tiny and small. But, what does the night bring? Having 3 to 15 quakes per day that I can feel, and getting pretty shaken by the 4.7, I’m just done. Some days the movement is small, but DAMN…every hour or so? If we had a normal quake, an aftershock or two, and then quiet for the next few months; most would call that normal. It’s NOT NORMAL to have so many even if they are small.

We’ve all become quite accomplished at our new game called “Guess The Magnitude”. Each time there is a rumble; we go to the USGS.gov website and check the reports. Our earthquake list can be found by searching Verdi-Mogul, NV. I’ve been following it so closely now, even that information is disturbing. I’ve learned that shallow quakes are better; it’s the deep ones that get worse. However, not only are our frequencies gaining strength, so are the magnitudes and the depths. And, sitting in a two story house makes it seem grander than it would on the ground floor. While many insurance companies have placed a moratorium on binding earthquake insurance in our area for the most part, I was lucky enough to get in under the wire. So, if the big one comes, we’ll be covered. Hopefully the rockin’ and rollin’ will cease soon with no serious consequences. Wish us well please, and let’s hope the poor souls in Southern California aren’t about to get the shock of their lives.

Photos courtesy of RGJ.com

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