Yesterday afternoon at about 1:55, I'm standing in WABC's Studio 17G talking to Engineer Su Ronneburger who was running the WABC side of the Rush Limbaugh Show, when my cell phone rings. It's my wife Sue calling from our home on Long Island and the first thing she says when I answer is, "Oh My God…the house was just shaking!!" I quickly walked into the Newsroom where the word was just coming in that the east coast had been hit by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, and reassured her that the world was not ending, but that what she felt was an earthquake centered in Virginia!
Suddenly the building's fire alarms went off followed by an announcement from the building's Fire and Safety Director saying that everyone should remain calm as they were at the present time assessing why the building had been shaking (obviously they were not watching TV). Then the personal stories started coming in…
Folks from the Sales Department came into the newsroom telling tales of how their cubicles had started to shake. There were folks all over the TV who were telling how they felt their building, car, subway, etc. shaking, and knew something was up! People from ESPN Radio walked through the newsroom telling us their experiences, and folks that I knew all over the east coast posted on Facebook about where they were and what they felt when the earthquake hit!
Suddenly, I felt all alone. Why? Well, because I didn't feel a damn thing! Then I discovered that I wasn't as alone as I thought. I went back into 17G where I guess I'd been when it hit, and asked Su Ronneburger if she'd felt it, and she said she hadn't either. I came out into the newsroom and afternoon news anchor Ken Duffy told me he'd felt nothing either! Then Mark Levin producer, Rich Sementa, joined the group that felt nothing! What the heck…were we the only 4 people on the 17th floor of 2 Penn Plaza who felt nothing???
Nope…as the afternoon continued, more folks joined our group. WABC/WPLJ President and General manager Steve Borneman felt nothing. WABC/WPLJ Chief Engineer Alex Roman felt nothing (and he grew up in California so he should know what an earthquake feels like). Then I saw WPLJ's Production Director Dan Kelly's Facebook post, "I didn't feel nottin! Damn!" Even Danny the security guard down in the lobby felt nothing! What the heck was wrong with us???
Then this morning I find the group growing. On WABC they're doing the Best of Imus and I hear Mark Simone say he slept through the earthquake…I guess that counts? CJ Papa who's filling in today for Warner Wolf joined the group who felt nothing, and then morning news anchor Noam Ladden admitted he felt nothing too. Now I felt a little better. After getting a cup of tea this morning, I stopped into General Manager Steve Borneman's office and asked if he still was in the "Didn't Feel It" category. He said he was, and then echoed what I was feeling when he said that he really wanted to feel an earthquake, and now he felt like he'd missed something. In other words, We've Been Gypped!!!
I'm sure that folks will be talking about this for years to come (last night my wife Sue was thinking about first, the earthquake, and then all the talk about the path of hurricane Irene, and even came up last night with a name for a drink that sums up this week – a Hurriquake!), and every time the subject comes up I'll have nothing to contribute! I think Rich Sementa's Facebook post from last night sums it all up, "I'll never forget where I was when I didn't feel the Earthquake of 2011".
