Thursday, February 08, 2007

Terremoto!

Earthquake! Right here in Marche!

I am sick with the flu. I felt icky all night, and was in and out of bed, alternating between trying to get comfortable, trying to stretch the achy muscles by walking around, and having to go to the bathroom after all the herbal tea I'd consumed. I got about about 2:15 a.m. for another bathroom run; I'd been back in bed about five minutes when I felt the bed moving. At first I thought it was Bryan's snoring, but then I realized the building was swaying slightly. We have a sliding pocket door to the bedroom, which I'd left partly open; it started lightly clink-clinking against its track. All told, it lasted four seconds, but I knew it was a little tremor. I'd felt a similar sensation when I was in California after the Northridge Earthquakes; Bryan was there working and I'd flown in for a weekend to see him. The aftershocks had continued and it was my first experience with the ground-shaking phenomenon. So last night at 2:30 a.m. there was no mistaking the sensation.

It occurred to late for the news to be carried in the local papers this morning, but on the street everyone is talking about it, and I'm sure it will be the major headline tomorrow. Oddly, the patron saint of our city, Sant'Emidio is said to protect against earthquakes. I guess he was sleeping throught it like Bryan.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember from when I lived in California that after an earthquake people took guesses about it's number on the Richter scale. Do they do the same there?
Glad everybody is OK though.

Charlie said...

After 5 years of living in Southern California it wasn't until the last week there that I actually was awake and felt an earthquake. We use to joke that California was safe as long as I was awake.