Just An Earthquake Saturday - Not Quite the Rapture

A 3.6-magnitude earthquake shook Contra Costa County last night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

I was sitting in Armando's around 7 p.m., waiting to do a sound check with my band, when the floor seemed to give way for a second. For just a second, I wonderd if perhaps the radio guy was right -- that the end of the world was here.

Then things just settled down back to normal, and I realized that we had just been handed a gigantic cosmic joke.

The quake struck about 2 miles south of Hercules just after 7 p.m. and had a 6-mile depth, according to the USGS.

Harold Camping, founder of the Oakland-based Family Radio network, predicted earlier this year that the Rapture -- the ascension of millions of earth dwellers into heaven marked by a massive earthquake -- would take place on Saturday.

The quake was 8 miles north of Berkeley and 9 miles south of Vallejo.

We played our show and though a few people left before the official end of the set, they didn't seem taken to heaven -- they just seemed a little tired.

Bay City News contributed to this report.