The Voice gathered the various reactions of students to the quake:

“I was just watching TV and I thought something like slammed into the wall… then I realized it was an earthquake but I didn’t get up because I figured I’d be all right,” Paly senior Brook Seaman said.

“I was sitting on a stool in my kitchen watching TV and I thought it was a big truck until I realized it was too long and powerful to be a truck,” Paly senior Allison Feeney said.

“Everyone in Paly and Jordan Band was at a concert at Gunn. It happened right in the middle of Jordan’s second piece. It was weird. The speakers were shaking and everyone was looking at each other like “was it just me, or did you feel that too?” Paly senior Max Lloyd said.

“I was watching TV with my mom, talking about the cross country race and the rest of my day. And then I heard these glass cups rattling and my mom and I just looked at each other and my mom was like “it’s an earthquake!” and she just hugged me tight,” Gunn junior Hadas Moalem said.

“I was home alone, sitting in my room on the phone with somebody and then the whole room started shaking and rattling. The thing is thats what always happens when my washing machine/dryer is finishing its cycle in the next room over, so I didn’t really care. Then it got really violent and stuff started sliding off my desk and I was like ‘holy crap is that an earthquake?’ and they were just like “OMG” and hung up and I didn’t know what to do,” Paly junior Adam Zernik said.

“I thought my mom was jumping on the floor,” Paly junior Lucas Matze said.

“I was in Policy Debate at Paly when it happened. No one freaked out. It was very calm. We just looked at each other, and I suggested we duck and cover,” Paly sophomore Abigail LaPier said.

“Well I was sitting at my dining table IMing people and then like everything around me began to shake. At first I thought it was my family being crazy and shaking the house but then I realized that it’s not possible. I got all freaked and started to flip out and screaming that there was an earthquake going on,” Gunn sophomore Ariel Ling said.