QUAKE SCENES

Four flat tires?

TUMWATER -- Jack and Carolyn Boone were in their car near the intersection of Trosper and Capitol Way when the earthquake hit.

"The car started rocking and I said, 'Oh no, we've got four flat tires,' " Carolyn said. "(Jack) said, 'No, it's an earthquake.' "

Undulating parking lot

OLYMPIA -- Ninth-grader Michael Parks was hanging out at Westfield Shoppingtown Capitol Mall when he felt dizzy and saw the grass start to shake.

"Then I saw cars jumping a foot off the ground."

They didn't all hop off the pavement at the same time but jumped in a wave pattern, Parks said.

Stuck in a tree

TUMWATER -- Chris Mobbs, 26, of Olympia was 50 feet up a pine tree on Tumwater Hill when the earthquake hit.

"I thought somebody was slapping the tree. Then it started swaying three or four feet to the side," said Mobbs, an employee of Ron's Stump Removal and Tree Service.

Mobbs saw the power lines bouncing and realized he was riding out an earthquake.

"I didn't know whether to try to climb down or ride it out," he said. "I decided to ride it out."

Once the quake subsided, Mobbs breathed a sigh of relief and continued to top the tree, slowly working his way down to the ground.

"It felt good to get both feet back on the ground," he said. "My adrenaline was really flowing."

No flight to Syracuse

SEATAC -- The Rev. Eddie Karnes, president of Yelm-based World Harvesters, was waiting to board a TWA flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when the terminal began to shake.

"The building took a real jerk, and most people fell to the ground," Karnes said.

His flight to Syracuse, N.Y., was canceled. Sea-Tac closed after the quake.

"We were almost ready to take off," Karnes said.

FROM READERS VIA E-MAIL

Toppling books

I was working in my office on the second floor of my home in west Olympia. The house shuddered, then I felt a rolling sensation.

One of my cats jumped up and dashed down the stairs. At first I thought it was a big truck passing by, or perhaps the guns at Fort Lewis.

Pictures on the walls vibrated, and books tumbled from the shelves. ... This is an old house, built in 1936, so the shaking was especially vigorous on the upper floor.

This quake was long -- I grew up in California, and this was as strong as any I ever felt in the Bay Area. ... -- Michael Huntsberger

Gotta run, it's a quake

My family just moved here from Texas two months ago, so this was my first earthquake. My daughter and I were upstairs in our townhome, talking to my grandmother in Texas, and everything started shaking. ... I hung up and ran downstairs with my daughter, and got ready to go outside.

It was pretty unnerving. ... My other daughter called from school, pretty scared and crying. All in all, we're all OK. -- Shea Beebe

Ducking for cover

I was on the third floor of the Labor and Industries Building on Linderson Way when the quake hit. I was with a friend in a room used for large bulk mailing, so all space was piled high with manuals and boxes of supplies.

I threw a mail bin out of the way to get under the counter. ...

Getting out, the stairway was full of plaster pieces and dust. After 20 minutes of searching I found my friend in the parking lot and we hugged and cried. We've got a special bond for life now. -- Dianna Yandrich

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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