I was working with my new bride in a convenience store just north of Santa Barbara when the ground began to shake. We were both standing behind the counter at the time, and the shaking was so severe we couldn’t travel the 10 feet or so get around the end of the counter and head for the door. The Slurpee machine behind us lunged in our direction, and the 2 coffee machines, each with a top and lower pot on them to our right and our left, both tipped over. The noise was deafening, as stacks of beer and soda crashed to the ground throughout the cooler and the back room.
During the shaking, which seemed endless, all we could do was crouch down and cover our heads. It was horrific.
Within a minute a man came into the store. He’d just pulled into our location from nearby Highway 101. Looking about at the wreckage, and said “What happened in here?” I asked incredulously, “Didn’t you feel the earthquake?” He replied, “Oh THAT’S what that was. I thought I was having a flat tire!”
What came next almost floored as much as the earthquake had. He asked, “Can I buy a pack of Marlboro?”
The store was closed for several days as we rolled a dumpster up to the front door and literally shoveled out the damaged inventory. To date, that earthquake has been the most terrifying moment of my life.
It was a magnitude 5.3
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