I've now experienced two earthquakes in my life and this is definitely the strongest at magnitude 6.5.

The first was only 4.0 about 12 years ago when I lived just south of San Fransciso. This one was less than an hour ago up here in the Redwoods on the North Coast of California.

I live in a modular home built on a permanent foundation, and in the 5.0 green area of the USGS map. The towns just south of me got the brunt of the shock waves at 6.5 and a few of my friends in the orange zone had some heavy damage with falling mirrors and pictures, dishes flying, etc. I've now got a couple of cracks in my ceiling.

We're very near the ocean so some people take the Tsunami warning signs very seriously.

Next time when my cat starts acting weird and meows her head off, I'll know something is up.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/nc/71338066/us/nc71338066_ciim.jpg