By Sara Quam
A Luverne native's world was literally rocked Feb. 28 as he experienced the Seattle earthquake from his sixth-floor office at Starbucks.
That Wednesday morning, a frightened Anthony Carroll peeked out from under his desk to witness what the 6.8-magnitude perpetrator was doing to his office.
"I've never experienced anything like it, and given the chance to choose, I wouldn't do so again," said the 1988 Luverne High School graduate and son of Laurin and Rose Carroll.
Growing up in Minnesota, Anthony was accustomed to hiding from storms in basements. "But with this, you can't do anything but wait it out. There's nowhere to go," he said.
When the first tremors started at 10:55 a.m., Anthony's co-worker announced that it was an earthquake and they both darted under a desk. It was all over in about 45 seconds.
"First it was a swaying back and forth," he said, "and then it became what they call the Jell-O effect where the ground moves and the buildings follow. Things were really moving."
Anthony said he won't soon forget the feeling of the quake, but he remembers the sound, too. "It's almost like a train rumbling by, but multiplied times 100."
The nine-story Starbucks building is one of the most recognized landmarks in the hardest-hit part of Seattle. It is currently operating out of an office across town. Part of the repairs the office has to complete is water damage from the sprinkler system and bursting water pipes.
Anthony's home was unaffected by the earthquake, and the office fared as well as it did because of reinforcement efforts a few years ago.
He expects to be back in his regular office in four to six weeks, but it could take the rest of the city a lot longer.
Even though the recovery will take time, Seattle ended up better off than most cities with a quake that strong. Typically, 26 would be dead and 2,600 injured with $3.9 billion in damage. But no deaths were attributed to the earthquake, and damage was half what was expected.
The natural disaster scared Anthony, but it's not enough to make him want to leave his job in product management as an analyst. "I do have a slight longing to work on the first floor, though," he said.