We had an earthquake last night. It measured 5.2 on the Richter scale. Now that may not sound much to the Americans, particularly those Californians amongst you. But it was big enough to wake me up, and I’m a man who has slept through fire alarms.
We do tend to have more sedate natural disasters in this country. Kansas has hurricanes that rip off entire roofs, but when it gets a bit windy in England all that happens is that a couple of chimney pots get blown into next door’s garden. When Bangladesh floods thousands loose their lives, over here some woman in York has to re-plaster her living room. And Tokyo frequently gets terrorized by a rampaging Godzilla, whereas in our village we just have an unusually large duck (it is a very big duck though).
Which is not to say I would actually like more dramatic cataclysms obviously. Even when playing SimCity on the PC I used to play with the disasters switched off. Who wants to spend hours designing an intricately laid out transportation system only to see it burnt to a crisp by an exploding volcano. And anyway, if you turned disasters off you could reduce the budget for the fire service right down to zero. There must have been a lot of cats left to starve in trees in my city. But alas the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I’m sure the good citizens of Dansville would prefer being hit with the occasional falling cat corpse than live in a city like this:
I was going to send an email to make sure you were okay, but then I checked CNN and it said, “Don’t worry. Dan, Kerry, Amy, and Even are alright.”
Avitable’s last blog post..A Letter To My Body View all comments by Avitable
And then I berated them for misspelling Evan’s name. They’ll be issuing a correction tomorrow.
Avitable’s last blog post..A Letter To My Body View all comments by Avitable
I’ve been through a few earthquakes, but the only big one was back in ‘72 in California. The bulletin board over my bed fell off the wall and hit me in the head. To this day, I won’t hang anything heavy over a bed just because of that.
Hope all is well. View all comments by Phil
Luckily it wasn’t stronger. I from California and have been through quite a few large quakes. Although it’ll wake you out of a deep sleep, 5.2 definitely isn’t one I’d get out of bed to take cover for. View all comments by jason
5.2, that’s cute.
Glad you’re okay!
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I didn’t feel a thing! View all comments by Helen
Even a tiny shake would have scared me. But I wake up with loud thunder.
Glad you’re all OK!
Miss Britt’s last blog post..What Would Dorothy Do View all comments by Miss Britt
5.2…phsh! Amateur.
Tracy’s last blog post..Our Tiny Little Foodie View all comments by Tracy
What about those menacing killer rabbits you have over there? I mean look at the bones!
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We slept right the way through it. But with a 12 week old in the house, it’ll take more than a mere earthquake to wake us (it takes a baby!). Feeling the earth moving ain’t at the top of our to-do list…
(un)relaxeddad’s last blog post..I?m behind with reading your blogs View all comments by (un)relaxeddad
At least it was something exciting to talk about at work today! Oh, and you nicked the title I was going to use!
Bec’s last blog post..The News has Jumped the Shark View all comments by Bec
WOW!
That must have been a surprise for sure!
How are all of the brick buildings in your area??
Glad your okay!!
:)
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Glad you’re okay, though I heard the local Etch-A-Sketch Museum was ruined: http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/13/1204118301/etchasketchquake.jpg
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I don’t hurricanes hit Kansas…but I am glad you came out unscathed by that tremor. That city is trashed in Danville though… View all comments by Joe