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Word of Mouth

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Did you feel last week’s earthquake?

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Published: July 1, 2010
  • I was writing at my computer, and I noticed a subtle trembling in the building. It was so slight, though, that I imagined that the motion was caused by a large truck passing by, rather than by a genuine earthquake. After all, I did grow up in California, and lived for many years within five miles or so of the major fault lines. The earthquakes I was used to there were, well, just a bit more obvious. Then again, it is UB, not an institution in California, that has thei> Earthquake Engineering Research Center!

    John B. Simpson
    UB President

  • I didn’t feel it, but I did feel the aftershocks of countless phone calls and media requests.

    Donald J. Goralski
    Chief of Staff
    MCEER

  • I was in a room without a foundation and it shook. For the first 10 or 15 seconds, I thought, ‘OK, this is mild.’ But when it went on for a little while longer, I left the house, which I guess is not what you should do—you should stay and get under a table. But I really wanted to check on my neighbor who lives alone—she felt the earthquake, too.

    Carole Smith Petro, PhD ’76, EdM ’73
    Associate Vice President
    Office of Economic Engagement

  • I was in Paris at the time of the quake, but I certainly received several e-mails from Buffalo and Toronto to alert me to the strange geological event. People could not believe that this was happening and thought that it was all the media coming to Toronto for the G20 Summit that was creating an unexpected supplement of weight in the area, and thus the Earth’s crust had to react in that very unusual fashion. In any case, it did not force me to reconsider coming to UB two years ago: After 16 years in California and two major earthquakes there, I believe that I have moved to a safer place as far as earthquakes are concerned.

    Jean-Jacques Thomas
    Melodia E. Jones Chair
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

  • I believe I was in my office at the time, but I didn’t even know there was an earthquake until my co-worker mentioned it. I’m not sure how I missed that!

    Jennifer Bowen, JD ’97
    Associate Vice President
    University Human Resources

  • Someone called the radio station almost immediately—at 1:45 p.m., I believe. We hadn’t seen anything on the wires at that point, and thought perhaps it was a prank. But then the next person started calling and we put it on Facebook. I think it shows the human response to get in touch with the media following such an event.

    David Benders
    Assistant General Manager
    WBFO 88.7 FM

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