A little one. Just a couple of minutes ago.
There was a low rumbling, sort of like a subway train going underneath the house, but... rhythmic. Pulsing, with a frequency of about half a second. The desk lamp by the computer -- it's one of those with the jointed arm and the cone around the bulb -- began to sway back and forth. I felt my chair going up and down, like it was going on rollers down a bumpy road, and then the whole house began to sway.
We ran to the kids' room. I picked up Alan, Claudia grabbed David, and we stood in the doorway at the top of the stairs. That's what they tell you: stand in a doorway, if you don't have time to get outside.
And then it stopped.
Dogs were barking up and down the street, and a minute later a confused flock of birds went cawing and creaking overhead in the darkness. But then everything got quiet again. It's very quiet now. We don't hear any sirens or anything. Like I said: a little one.
Much of Bucharest was flattened by an earthquake in 1977; the whole middle and lower Balkan region is tectonically unstable. Earthquakes are a fact of life here, and there's nothing to be done about it.
We're going to go back to bed now. Eventually we'll sleep.
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« Walking down Strada Roma | Main | Earthquake, update »
October 28, 2004
Earthquake
A little one. Just a couple of minutes ago.
There was a low rumbling, sort of like a subway train going underneath the house, but... rhythmic. Pulsing, with a frequency of about half a second. The desk lamp by the computer -- it's one of those with the jointed arm and the cone around the bulb -- began to sway back and forth. I felt my chair going up and down, like it was going on rollers down a bumpy road, and then the whole house began to sway.
We ran to the kids' room. I picked up Alan, Claudia grabbed David, and we stood in the doorway at the top of the stairs. That's what they tell you: stand in a doorway, if you don't have time to get outside.
And then it stopped.
Dogs were barking up and down the street, and a minute later a confused flock of birds went cawing and creaking overhead in the darkness. But then everything got quiet again. It's very quiet now. We don't hear any sirens or anything. Like I said: a little one.
Much of Bucharest was flattened by an earthquake in 1977; the whole middle and lower Balkan region is tectonically unstable. Earthquakes are a fact of life here, and there's nothing to be done about it.
We're going to go back to bed now. Eventually we'll sleep.
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Check it out:
http://tsunami.geo.ed.ac.uk
or
http://tinyurl.com/5c59b
I think that is the one you were referring to.
Christine
Posted by: Christine F. | October 28, 2004 at 04:55 AM
Ok, more links for you!!
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usqcck.htm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27538594.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4579686,00.html
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=40831
http://www.bgnewsnet.com/story.php?lang=en&sid=13693
Hey, you're in the news!
Christine
Posted by: Christine F. | October 28, 2004 at 05:02 AM
Heh! Thanks for the links, we woke up to them this morning.
I have to say, it was pretty scary. No way I'm ever go to live in LA.
No way.
Posted by: claudia | October 28, 2004 at 08:44 AM
Sorry the links aren't clickable. I assumed that the posting program would do that. Also glad to here there doesn't seem to be too much damage. I've never felt an earthquake, and would be just as happy if I never do!
Posted by: Christine F. | October 28, 2004 at 03:40 PM
I've never felt an earthquake, and would be just as happy if I never do!
I live in 'The Shaky Isles' (New Zealand), and I've never felt one, although there have been a couple I would have felt if I was working in a skyscraper at the time. OTOH, I live on a volcanic field that was last active around AD1400. Volcanic cones make nice parks!
Glad everyone is OK.
Are the building codes generally enforced? From memory, this was a big issue in the western Turkey quakes a few years ago.
Cheers
Posted by: Errol | October 28, 2004 at 11:31 PM