Why would you go outside during an earthquake? Unless you were trying to drive away.

To be fair, if you're not from an earthquake prone area like California, you're not going to know exactly what to expect. In areas that don't normally experience earthquakes, it's better to go outside, as a magnitude 5 quake can take houses and buildings that weren't designed with them in mind down.

Why run outside?

This reminds me of when I was on a new medication and I fell asleep in class and the guy behind me thought it would be funny to rattle my chair. I woke up screaming Earthquake.

Why would you go outside during an earthquake?

Why was your first instinct to go outside?

Here in cornfield USA where the houses are older than the dirt they sit on, the power lines are by the roads, and the open cornfields where the most dangerous thing that can fall on you is a stalk of corn are endless and by far safer than the houses where a good half ton of bricks can fall on you. So, for the one hundred comments asking the same thing, this is why. It takes less than fifteen seconds to get from my door to a completely open space.

LOL to the max!

"Shaking violently" yet "just the cat"? How damn big is your cat???

A couple of years ago I was in my kitchen preparing dinner when all of a sudden I felt the floor lift then settle, I thought the bulldozer working on the parking next to my house had hit the side of my house so I didn't think much of it, then later that day I was told it was an earthquake lol, I have never experienced one before so I had no idea lol