Here's some pretty incredible video footage of the earthquake in the middle of the desert. Click here for video on gettingprepared.info The desert sort of explodes in dust.

I've heard reports from witnesses of similar dust clouds being kicked up after the powerful Haiti and Shichuan earthquakes, but I think this is the first time I've seen video of the phenomenon. Reminds me of wildfire video footage.

That's fascinating footage. Thanks for posting the link!

Dude!! lol. Amazing video, thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, I live in Mexicali, where the quake epicenter was. Those mountains are about 30 miles away from the city, and after the earthquake, the cloud of dust moved in.

The city has an earthquake culture (5.0 shakes are usual) so the houses and buildings are made with a more strict building code. In the city, some houses presented structural damages, but none of them fell during the shake. My house is a 2 story concrete block edification, and only suffered minor wall cracks (My wife made me put the bed on the first floor, due to the aftershakes that we have been having).

In the Mexicali Valley, it is a different story, a lot of houses where destroyed, because the earth "cracked open" in a lot of places, houses where "cut" in two, some of them fell into the cracks. In other parts the quakes opened cracks that started to emanate hot water (like little geisers) and flooded with water and mud nearby houses. A lot of irrigation channels got damaged and filtered water to the underground. Fortunately, there where only 2 deaths and about 250 wounded, it was a lucky thing that the quake hit on a festive sunday, so almost everybody was outside their homes (We are BIG fans of sunday grilling carne asada). Most of the services (electricity, water phone lines) where restored in 24-48 hours in the city. In the valley about 20,000 people went homeless, they do not have water or electricity, their houses are total loss. Right now we are making some donations that are collected in various points of the city to send a little bit of help to our brothers in need, we are donating food, water, tents, blankets, diapers, etc. The government and military are implementing contingency plans and are already looking for some options to put a roof over their heads (They have even commented about some mobile homes that where used in Katrina).

Welcome to the forum, Hector! I'm glad you and the wife are safe, that must of been a heck of an experience. Have you found yourself changing anything in your preparedness because of it?

-Blast

I was in my in-laws house when it happened (They live in the edge of the city), so i didn't have immediate access to my emergency stuff (I had stopped carrying stuff in the car due to car robberies common here).

My brothers in-law and I hopped in my SUV (I was the one with a full tank) and went to check our houses, closed the gas tanks, water lines, electricity, gathered the emergency items (tents, blankets, camping gear) food and water and made a campground with the in-laws. We went to a water channel to fill up a 200 lt. plastic container for bathroom use.

My family is used to camping trips to the beach and mountains , so the idea of being a few days sleeping out in tents without light and running water wasn't bad, they all knew what to do.

My daughter wanted to stay a few days more "camping with her grandparents".

Unfortunately my in-laws house has been determined unsafe (It is a very old house that was made with a material called "Adobe", they are blocks made of mud, straw and ashes, joined together with mud, a common building material in the Mexicali valley)and is going to be demolished. So right now we are making them a new house (starting with only 2 rooms and the bathroom), we hope to finish them by the weekend.

So my only regret was not to have my basic emergency gear in the car, otherwise, everything went fairly well. I try not to have less than a half tank of gas in the car (this was a big problem with everybody, i had to take them to a gas station that had an emergency generator and make a huge line to buy gas.

This event has made people aware (again) that they need to be prepared for an emergency, they all where too accustomed to quakes that didn't had repercussions, so this one caught them off guard.

are you making adobe again? Should consider superadobe (sandbag + barbwire).

Appreciate you relating your story. Especially because what you did in "camping out" is my plan when my house gets damaged, as it almost inevitably will, someday.....

Too bad about the adobe. It is not earthquake resistant material, although there is nothing better in a hot climate.

The new house is gonna be made with a concrete foundation but wood walls and ceiling, we are no longer using Adobe. I'm starting this weekend with mi house reparations. I was waiting until the replicas ended (so far more than 2000, ranging from 1.0 to 5.5), but they haven't stopped (Experts are saying that maybe in a month they will stop), so no more waiting.
Usgs earthquake page Mexicali