Really shakes ya' up don't it? Northridge was a 6.7 but the ground acceleration was the highest ever recorded in urban America. 1989 Loma Prieta was much, much closer to me. A 6.9, and lasted 15 seconds. I was on the phone with a friend about 40 minutes drive away, who'd just moved "here" from Chicago, when the quake hit, and on my way with a puke pan for one of my kids with the flu. It hit, I remember yelling into the phone "quake!", about 30 seconds later, my friend was yelling into the phone back at me that she was NOW experiencing the quake too.
Lucy Jones: suggesting a quake to last 100 seconds.
After Loma Prieta, I discovered I disliked the aftershocks more than the quake. Would it get bigger or were the aftershocks getting smaller...