“There are videos of dogs showing erratic behavior and racing out of a room seconds before a quake hits. What are they reacting to?”
Decades ago when we lived in Marin and Sacramento, we had a hundred pound dog, who was normally fearless. About 10 minutes before a quake would hit, she would scratch on the doors and whine until we let her in. She and I became one until the quake was over.
We live on the edge here, with city on one side and woods on the other side. About 10-15 minutes before every quake over 3.0, the critters from foxes, coyotes, bobcats, coons, possums and deer start running into things in our yard and outside our yard. One area just outside our master bedroom, becomes an I5 for for critters heading south until this last quake which was south of us. During this quake, they ran north, away from the quake. We have a deer fence around a good part of our yard which keeps critters out and herds them around the house. There was a lot of fresh organic fertilizer, hoof prints and paw prints heading north along and outside the deer fence.
About 10 minutes before this quake, we heard something slam against/on our deck which is inside the deer fence. Then, the noise of critters scurrying/running past our master bedroom windows and outside our deer fence, began. At that time, the sounds seemed to be heading south, the normal pattern before a quake.
My wife had gone back to sleep, until she heard the critter noises and me getting out of bed to check. Then, she said maybe you should come back to bed. As I started to get back into bed, I saw the green lights flash. Then, I covered her body with mine, the harsh shaking began, my wife used her favorite 4 letter word, used only in situations like this. Then, the power went out for about 4 hours.
During the quake and right after it, we heard things falling around our home and in it. A few things were broken and basically every book and picture was thrown off its resting place to the floor. Most items hit carpet or rugs and were undamaged. Then, critter noises indicated they were running north away from the quake as noted above.
My OCD wife started to jump out of bed. I told her to get her UGHs on and to grab a flashlight. I got my Crocks on, and as we went around the house it looked littered, and there was a lot of broken glass in our dining room, not the orderly home with a life long OCDer. I told her to ignore her OCD and go back to bed until day light or the power came back on. I went back to sleep, and she laid there fretting about a littered house.
Outside some tools and stuff were on the deck and ground. We have a recycling water fountain and the heavy top parts were thrown about 5’ away. They were broken, and our yard man got them back on and the fountain working.
Our home was safe probably due to some expensive renovating finished a couple of weeks ago.
The '94 was for real, OK. But that was a pretty high Richter Number, 7+, IIRC. No matter the Richter # in Napa, I am very relieved that so few were hurt, and that there was so little immediate catastrophic damage. I did lose a house in 94, but it took a long time for the ground to open up underneath it causing it to be condemned. At first it looked like no damage at all!
Quite a “wildlife alarm” system you have there! Good to hear you didn’t suffer injury or major damage in the quake.