I have vague memories of a couple of small earth tremors in childhood, too vague to talk about.
Another happened while I was teaching at the top of a four-storey building. This may have been in 1984, but I wouldn't swear to that. I didn't feel it, perhaps because I was standing and moving around, but the kids did.
Then there was the one under Dudley in September 2002. This measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, and happened in the early morning. I woke up under the impression that someone was shaking the bed. I spent the next two hours listening to Radio Five reports from various places in the country.
We experienced a small one (4.1) in San Francisco on August 2nd 2006 - the epicentre was Glen Ellen, near Santa Rosa , about 60 miles north. Harry was making the evening meal. He said it felt as though some huge animal had run past the window. I felt as though someone had given my armchair a hefty push.
Early this morning , a roaring noise woke me up and then it felt as though someone had grabbed the bed and given it a good shaking. The epicentre was near Lincoln and, according to the BBC, the quake/tremor measured 5.2. This time I turned over and went back to sleep. How blasé is that?
2 comments:
Hi - just found you via Sally's blog. I can't believe I didn't even realise it was an earthquake! At first I thought it was the cat clawing my bed, but when I realised it wasn't, I just went 'ah well' and went back to sleep. I'd be so great in a real emergency!
Hi Helen,
You'd be the calm controlled person who didn't panic and got on with things.
There's not a lot you can actually do when something like that happens, though I believe in earthquake-prone areas they dive for the nearest table to hide under.
For tornadoes they do something quite different - though I can't remember what. Can cause confusion when a California woman marries a man from Tornado Alley, I believe.
But these events are so rare and relatively minor here that we don't think about the precautions at all.
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