It was 7:09 am on Wednesday March 18th, 2020. I was still sleeping when all of a sudden I was abruptly woken up by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. It was scary. I was laying in bed, and immediately got up to find cover and hang on. I kept calling Champ to come to me, but the little guy was terrified. He went to a corner of the apartment and just sat there scared. He even peed himself and he has never had an accident as an adult; understandable given he or I have been through something like this. The quake lasted for a good 30 seconds if I’m not mistaking. I was living in one of those newer condos in downtown SLC, so I could feel the whole building sway. Once the earthquake was over I immediately put on some clothes and went outside. Did ya catch the date above? March 2020, what else was happening in March? Hmmmmm….
Right, we’re in the beginning of what was at the time a scary new coronavirus spreading! As soon as I exited my building I saw everyone was distancing and just scared because of what just happened. Right across the street there was a park with a big soccer field, so I went there to go wait things out a bit. Luckily we ran into Champ’s best friend so I just let the two of them play out there while I contacted my family and friends.
It was safe to go back in, but unfortunately the power was out and not coming back until 10p that day; I found it weird Rocky Mountain gave us a specific time. So I decided to go to my company’s office; it was going to be empty anyways, and empty it was. I did bring Champ with me because he was frighten. The aftershocks were scaring him and we had more than 50 aftershocks 2 hours after the quake, I couldn’t leave him home alone without power. In the office one of the Security Guards saw him, but gave me a pass saying “I didn’t see a dog here;” thankful for that. Afterwards I went to my sisters place to wait for the power to come back, and right when the clock struck 10p lo and behold the power was back.
What’s the moral of the story? 2020 was weird. This was just one of those weird moments I went through. I’ll never forget how this felt, or Champs’ reaction to the quake; he looked so innocent and scared, I can tell he even felt guilty for the accident, but I wasn’t going to get mad at him for it. Whenever we ran into our next quake, hopefully we’re prepared.
TL;DR Scary quake, Champ peed himself, and this all happened with the coronavirus started spreading.