subject: Experiencing An Earthquake [print this page] Experiencing An Earthquake Experiencing An Earthquake
Have you ever been in or experienced an Earthquake? I've felt a few minor quakes over the years, the ones where you say to whoever's near you, "oh did you feel that?" or the ones where you happen to notice the light bulb that hangs from the ceiling is swaying. Then you listen with a little interest to the news of the day to find out where the quake was centred and what it measured on the Richter scale.
Well a few short weeks ago, on September 4th 2010 to be exact, my experience of earthquakes suddenly changed forever. On that deftly still, coal-black, moonless morning at 4.35am, in the middle of another ordinary night's sleep, the most terrifying event of my life began to unfold as the 7.1 magnitude quake began its unearthly assent to the surface of our city.
My husband's instincts were to throw his arm over me to hold and protect me as the violent shaking & pitching tossed us & our bed in every manner of direction. The house conducted a cacophony of deafening noises as nails and joists departed company, each creek making it all the more frightening, terrifying would be more accurate actually.
Our ears were assaulted by an unbelievably thunderous train like roar as huge fissures opened up allowing gasses from deep in the earth to escape and the ground spewed up its contents, a porridge of wet silty grey sand which I now know is called liquefaction. The noise continued and changed into shattering, breaking and crashing as doors slid violently back and forth on their runners, as house timbers twisted and bricks fell, as concrete & road seal began cracking & distorting, as windows creaked & cracked threatening to smash into thousands of fragments. I am sure the whole earth continued to rattle and shake for what seemed an eternity, for what in reality was another 45 seconds or so, yet in that small time frame, the earth changed the landscape in a way thousands of men working together could not achieve and the look and feel of our city changed forever.
Then, just as suddenly and every bit as frighteningly, the noises stopped and the whole world was still, eerily still. One could not wait for the noise to stop, yet the after-quietness was every bit as terrifying, like that moment in a horror movie, just before, well, you know. My husband held me in his strong arms and we just sat there waiting, wondering, what next?
