‘I thought something hit my building’: BC residents react to earthquake

The 4.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Tuesday night rattled many B.C. residents across the South Coast.

Shaking was felt across the region, including in Chilliwack and Abbotsford.

Ashley Belzer was in the bath in Richmond when the earthquake hit.

“All of a sudden I was in the tub and I was just about to head to bed and I initially thought that something hit my building,” she said. “Then all of a sudden things started falling off the walls and breaking and that was quite the shake.”

A mug and a dish on the back of the toilet also fell off the countertop and broke.

“It was more shock than anything,” said Belzer. “I’ve felt minor earthquakes in the past, but it was almost like a panic.”

“It just started like a rumbling and the water was definitely swaying and it took me a minute to realize what was going on.”

She said the earthquake also knocked some pictures off the wall and a few things fell off the stove.

The shaking was felt quite strongly across Vancouver Island and in Victoria.

“I thought the person above me was stomping on the ground and stuff and then I realized it was moving a lot more than that,” said one resident, who added that the shaking lasted about 15 or 20 seconds.

“It’s definitely a really jarring experience.”

Global BC anchor Robin Stickely said she thought someone was breaking in to her Vancouver apartment on the eighth floor.

“I have not felt anything like that before,” she said. “I hate to admit it, but it didn’t strike me immediately as an earthquake.”

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“It was so foreign to me, that feeling of shaking.”

Some people who were watching Star Wars at a movie theatre in downtown Vancouver, said they felt shaking in their seats.

“I thought someone was kicking the seat in the theatre,” said one movie-watcher.

The earthquake was felt widely across the South Coast: