Hi Todd,

I felt every aftershock. it got so bad, I had to drop out of school and move north for a while. My nerves were shot. And most of those aftershocks were while I was on that 13th floor.

I stayed in the dorm for two weeks before I left. When I returned two weeks later, we were still having them. Yes, we were on rollers, and 13 floors up will give you a lot of sway. The initial shock threw me out of bed. I couldn't walk, so I crawled to the door and hung on to the knob until the shaking subsided. We had to take the stairs on the outside of the bldg. down, and i remember one aftershock almost threw us overboard.

And yes, I believe that EQ did last 58 seconds. Anyone want to look it up? I remember talk about how unusual that was, but I'd be curious to know. All I know is it felt like an hour before books stopped flying off shelves and people stopped screaming as they crawled towards the elevators (which had shut down). Stupid move anyway.

About my feelings that a big quake was coming, it was a feeling of total dread. But it was also specific to an eq coming. It started at dinner that night, and I began telling my friends about it. Mostly I was shrugged off. As bedtime approached, I was like a wild animal. Couldn't sleep. So I hung out in the lobby with the all-night crowd and told them all a big earthquake was coming. The looks I got.

5 am, I finally fall into a fitful sleep. An hour later, blammo. First I heard an explosion-- a huge boom-- and I knew what was coming. An instant later, the first jolt hit, and it was enormous.

Once out in the street, the people I had told of an impending earthquake were of two types. One type congratulated me; the other looked at me as if I were from the far side of the moon.

The aftershocks went on for years. I remember one in particular that scared the you-know-what out of me. I was ironing, listening to Beethoven's 5th when a 5.0 hit. I have never been able to listen to that symphony since.

What does a 5.0 feel like 13 floors up? A 6.6?

Cathryn