My feeling has GREATLY changed since Wednesday, September 5, 2011. I was getting ready to nurse my 8 month old before going to a parade that was to start at 9am in front of the court house with my three and a half year old. It was for Children´s day that was actually on Sunday but the whole week was full of festivities in town for the children. Right before I took my baby out of my housekeeper´s arms, we all of the sudden felt the whole house start shaking. It started slow at first but seemed to be getting stronger. My husband, housekeeper and I just stood still and stared for a moment to make sure it was just going to be one of those quick tremors and then stop. My son Matthew didn´t seem to have a clue and my baby definitely didn´t. All of the sudden I realized it wasn´t going to stop and I felt a strong need to get out of the house and get out now. Immediately I started saying in a calm voice, "Let`s go outside......let`s go outside, let`s go outside". I kept repeating it and started walking that way but it seemed like no one was moving. I started turning Matthew around and heading him to the door but he didn´t really want to and didn´t get what was going on. It was a little hard to walk, felt so unstable. Then, my housekeeper who was next to me seemed to be frozen. I took my arm around her waist and started forcing her to walk, all the while saying "Let`s go outside" in Spanish. I don´t know why I didn´t grab my baby from her arms and just go but I was busy leading Matthew out too. Dani was closest to the door and when we got to him, he was going in front of us, then Matthew and my housekeeper with me trying to scoot everyone out. At the last minute since it seemed like Matthew didn´t really want to go, Dani turned around and picked him up and took him out through the door. Right as we were passing through the door, I heard glass crashing and things hitting the floor. I didn´t turn around to look.
When we got out to the side yard, we faced the back and looked at our new house under construction. It was swaying from left to right and right to left, all three floors of it. Then I saw two of our construction workers who´ve worked with us for years on the second floor but working up at the ceiling, practically on the third story. That probably impacted me the most during this upsetting event. I saw them, two people who we´ve known and trusted for years up there in this swaying building and not able to get down. All of the sudden, there was a lull in movement. It didn´t stop but definitely slowed down and the guys came flying down the ladder they were on and flew down the scafolding that was next to the construction. I´ve never seen anyone move so fast. They came over to where we were and we all just stared while waiting for it to stop. My car was in the carport under the first floor of the house basically bouncing from left to right. It was like a movie. It seemed like it lasted forever. I´ve seen reports saying it was anywhere from 45 seconds long (definitely don´t agree with that) to a minute and a half. I think the minute and a half is more like it but it seemed like forever.
Right after it subsided, Matthew said immediately, "I want to go inside, I want to go inside". I told him we needed to wait for a little bit first and make sure it was over before we go back. He started getting angry and kind of panicking. Then I realized he probably didn't realize what had just happened and why we couldn't go back inside just yet. I took him over to the chair to sit down, since I couldn't stop shaking and a flood of emotion overcame me. I really wanted to cry but we were with other people and I didn't want to freak out Matthew so I managed to just well up a bit and then I started talking to Matthew and hugging him and he put his face in my lap and I was trying to explain to him why the house shook so violently and we had to run outside, etc. Finally we went inside and saw what had happened. Here are two pictures and which don't do justice to the amount of broken shards of glass and ceramic on the floor.
What an experience. There's been around 2500 aftershocks in over 10 days since it happened. Some we feel, some we don't. Everyone is thinking about it and talking about it ALL the time. We just can't stop. It's always on our minds. We're on the edge of our seats and on alert ALL the time. The night after the earthquake happened, we had another pretty good shake in the middle of the night. I woke up, got my flip flops on and just sat on the edge of my bed waiting to see what was next. Then, two days later another pretty good one while I was in the kitchen making a cake with Matthew and Julian was sleeping. Dani was home for lunch and just down the hall. I jerked Matthew out of that kitchen so fast, he didn't know what hit him. I went to the hall and just waited for a minute until I realized it wasn't going to continue. Every tremor makes us nervous but it seems about every two days there's a GOOD shake that really makes us think of running out of the house. The worst ones are the the couple we've had in the middle of the night. Thank goodness I woke up at the end of the last big one we had around midnight the other night so I wasn't even sure if what I felt, I really felt or if it was a dream. Plus I was alone with the kids that night since Dani was working a nightshift. Apparently it was pretty strong. I had messages on my cell phone from the night before from family, wondering if we were ok and not too freaked out. They say this can go on for up to 3 months. The aftershocks are a good thing though. The earthquake only got rid of about half the energy that it had so these aftershocks are helping relieve the tension so we don't have another 7.6er like before.
The crazy thing is that the most recent big earthquakes with so much damage like places in China, Haiti, Chile, etc were all either less magnitude than this one or about the same. There was so much devastation in those places and we are so lucky that this country didn't have the same fate. I mean SOOOOO lucky. How is it that those earthquakes nearly destroyed those areas in other countries but in ours, there was very little structural damage and only 2 people died those were from heart attacks from the terrror of it all? Thousands died in the other ones.
The last thing that I want to say is that there is NO SAFE PLACE in an earthquake. I mean, tornadoes, you always have the basements or closet or bath with no windows, etc. Hurricanes and tornadoes both, you know about them or at least the potential for them way in advance so you can evacuate. An earthquake can come whenever and wherever and it's just scary. Even outside, there are powerlines, trees and other buildings and stuff that can fall on you. Some say get under a table and hold on as tight as you can to the legs but with a family of four, really? I am so glad we went outside and I wasn't inside to hear and see all the things falling and breaking around me. I would be more freaked out than I already am.
