About 45 minutes ago, I woke as yet another earthquake shook the house. Bev didn't stop snoring, but the dog felt it as he was at my door whining as soon as I was under the door jam.
I can remember my dogs reactions, when I was a kid, to earthquakes. They always started whining and growling down low in their throats. Earthquakes and fires in the hills surrounding the San Fernando Valley are some of the most vivid memories I have from childhood. Same for my siblings.
The little town my sister lives in had a terrible forrest fire in 1994 and she had flashes of childhood memories, the same as I have had, smelling the smoke and seeing the haze that covers everything. There is a tension in the air that I feel during an earthquake, maybe the same thing animals sense in their primal brains. I don't have the flight or fight thing-just the get under a door jam thing. Or a table.
This apparently was a little roller, or it was pretty far away, unlike the one I experienced on November 19th, the first night I was alone in the house here on the ridge. That was a magnitude 6+ and was a topic of conversation amongst the foreigners in the dentist office the next day. Ticos don't even bother to discuss them-there are so many here.
Again I went to the great U S Geographical Survey site
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/N_America.php
to see if anyone else felt it.
It wasn't registered, so I filled out an 'unknown quake' report and since the roosters started crowing when the quake happened, I figured I was awake for the day-after all it will be dawn in about 45 minutes.
Later.................
Amazingly enough, though I did go back to sleep and woke up at about 8-sleeping thru dawn.
I checked the USGS site again en voila, there it was. Bigger than I thought, this one a 4.8. An email from the USGS said I was the only report for quite a while and that "Yes, I must be very sensitive to quakes."
How do people live where there are constant earthquakes? And for Central America, it appears to be pretty constant. They just accept that it's going to happen and thats all. They don't bother getting excited about it, may discuss it with a neighbor but basically, if the quake caused no damage to their home or property, to their families person or if nothing fell on their car, it isn't a big issue.
I can't be that kicked back about it though.
Amazingly enough, though I did go back to sleep and woke up at about 8-sleeping thru dawn.
I checked the USGS site again en voila, there it was. Bigger than I thought, this one a 4.8. An email from the USGS said I was the only report for quite a while and that "Yes, I must be very sensitive to quakes."
How do people live where there are constant earthquakes? And for Central America, it appears to be pretty constant. They just accept that it's going to happen and thats all. They don't bother getting excited about it, may discuss it with a neighbor but basically, if the quake caused no damage to their home or property, to their families person or if nothing fell on their car, it isn't a big issue.
I can't be that kicked back about it though.
After the Sylmar quake on my brothers birthday in, I think, about 1971, I became a mental wreck. We had to move out of our house-it was condemned. That was a quake that brought down the Golden State Freeway, wrecked a hospital near the epi-center and made me decide it was time to consider living someplace other than Southern California.
3 years later, we were in Oregon, and while the weather isn't as nice, we don't have smog, the beaches belong to the people and earthquakes are infrequent.
3 years later, we were in Oregon, and while the weather isn't as nice, we don't have smog, the beaches belong to the people and earthquakes are infrequent.
So OK while experiencing 2 quakes in 2 weeks here doesn't turn me off about Costa Rica, especially since the last couple of days have been beautiful and sunny, it does make me reconsider living here, even as a snowbird.
I've always had this thing about unpredictable disasters, like quakes, fires, hurricanes (no way would I live on the gulf coast), tornados (ditto for the breadbasket states).
I can see myself, like Dorothy in The Wizzard of Oz, flying off in some big tornado, or getting trapped in the middle of a valley while the fire burns down from each hilltop, or having a house fall down on me. Never knowing where my children are, if my grandchildren are ok.
Doesn't make any difference that my kids are all adults-the mom in me wants to gather her chicks around and throw her body on top of them, like I did to my boys in the Sylmar quake. Things were falling off the walls of their bedroom, windows were breaking, my husband got thrown down the stairs. It was a quake that went on and on and on. You could decide what to do while the quake was happening. My oldest boy, who was about 8, grabbed his dads hardhat and went under the kitchen table. That was pretty good thinking so I joined him, with his brother in my arms, as the aftershocks continued.
I'm glad this quake wasn't as big as that one was....but, it could happen. Right?
I wouldn't make a very good pioneer I'm afraid.
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