I have experienced one earthquake first-hand, and that was nearly 20 years ago. It measured just over 5 on the Richter scale and was centered near Roermond in southern Holland. It did a fair bit of damage in that town, toppling chimney and other masonry. I was 60 miles to the north at the time, and it was a strange and frightening experience.
I awoke at 3 am, with the moon shining into my bedroom. There was not a sound - which was odd, as there is always the noise from the motorway, linking Holland to Germany, in the background. Not that night. I dropped off to sleep.
Just over 20 minutes later, I awoke to the bed swinging back and forth, and the whole house in fact creaking and swaying. It lasted for about 15 seconds, then ceased. The power had gone off, but I had batteries in my bedside radio, and this reported the quake, as well as the power outage. Things got back to normal fairly soon. The power grid had tripped out as a result of the quake, but was reset quickly.
It compared in no way to the massive quake that struck Japan yesterday, and the aftershocks are still generating tsunami waves along that country's coast. I am learning that nearly twenty 9 ft tsunami waves came ashore at Crescent City CA over the past 24 hours.
I've been in a four, a five and a seven - a seven is truly a frightening experience, watching waves move through the ground. I hate to think what it's like to be in an 8.9.
ReplyDeleteIt has been really horrific watching to the TV news footage of the aftermath of teh earthquake in Japan. ( Like you I have only once been through an earthquake. It was in Wellington NZ. and was around 5.2 unfortunately I slept through it LOL my friends were all worried about me thinking I would be terrified had even come to the bedroom door to check but heard no noise comming from me !!!) God Bless them all Guido.
ReplyDeleteLove Sybil xx
I, too, experienced a rather frightening earthquake when living in Burbank, CA. (San Fernando quake) And two tremors at different times scared me quite badly in this building. It is quite something to be on the 9th floor and have a building of this size actually shaking. And this was a quake of very small magnitude. Made me hope that never would an earthquake hit Phoenix. When I was on a ground floor of another Phoenix apt. I actually mistook an earthquake for our plumbing problem really acting up. I said to my daughter, my god, what is the sewer doing now, it sounds like a dragon under there, and I ran out with my Stilson wrench to release the water on the lawn. My kids hollered after me, "Its an earthquake, Mom!" They naturally thought this reaction was hilarious!
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