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The birds took flight as the trees swayed in surrealistic motion!
There’s a whole lot of shaking going on, and at 9:16 this morning Ecuador received one that shook away our electricity! Lasting over a minute, this was the strongest earthquake I’ve ever witnessed, and for the first time ever, I considered gathering a few critical belongings and prepared to bolt to higher ground. I was certain that the fault near Bahia de Caraquez had belched a big one!
Power returned just as I was preparing to leave the house, and a quick check pin pointed the quake in Columbia. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
The river rippled with cellulite-like splotches!
As I retrieved my purse, camera, passport info, I realized that nothing else was of true value! In the midst of wondering if I was about to encounter a tsunami, there was little baggage, emotional or monetary, to add to my flight or fight response! The little Burrito laptop was certainly going to tag along; otherwise it would be difficult to send out a signal that said, “I’m fine!”
And I am fine. Since I have my purse, camera and mud boots on standby, I will trek to town and confirm that everyone else experienced this minute-long ground shaking, water rippling earthquake. I hope that the people of Columbia fared as well.
Earlier this morning I had been watching the shrimpfest! My friends harvested the pond last night!
Surely Jerry Lee’s song makes an appropriate ending for this post!
Z
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
Wow, I’m glad to read you are okay! They are scary as all heck those earthquakes, felt a few when I lived in San Francisco – but nothing like a 7! Stay safe – lots goes through your mind when you feel danger, and it’s interesting to note what really holds full values in our eyes.
Take care, Mary
thanks, amiga. all’s fine here, and hopefully the earth’s plates will relax for a while! z
Glad you are OK, and the rest in your village too! Interesting what goes on in ones mind when these things happen…
yes, all’s fine here. i was surprised that the older generation in town was pretty ‘shaken’ by this earthquake! we all hope that the earth settles down and sleeps like a baby for a long while!
thanks so much for your comment!
Z, glad to be reading your post and that you are OK…since I have decided to block out of my mind many of the details, all I can tell you from experience is that a 7 magnitud is huge (my homeotwn survived a 7.2 a few years ago)… Take care, be prepared, after shocks… God bless you!!! alexandra
si; thanks for your feedback; i had noted this week the lack of small temblors between costa rica and peru, and i thought, ‘uh – oh..where’s it going to hit?’ with the new moon approaching, i expected it.
thanks so much for your comment!
z
we missed feeling this one..was on a bus in Charapoto, coming back from market…we may have felt it thinking it was just the usual jostling ride on a bus with bad shocks..glad you’re ok amiga..
thanks; wow, i am a bit sorry that you missed experiencing it, but you surely had an equally-‘i’m alive and well’ experience in charapoto! i’ll bet it was really busy on this weekend before carnival!
Must be scary. I sympathize. Like you, I would have my mud boots, lap top and passport. Forget the rest.
si, and the laptop was strictly to send out the ‘thumbs up’ signal! the older generation in town seemed pretty shaken by this one.
z
We had a small 4.0 here in David a few days ago, nothing to write home about like the one you felt. Yikes, it must have given you pause….
si; i’ve ridden many temblors in costa rica – some of them pretty strong. a few months ago columbia had another 7.0 that shook this area, but this one trumped them all!
thanks for your comment!
z
We felt it here but not as much as you did. Thanks for letting us know where it was centered. A true Californian, I ran to the living room/deck doorway while it was happening. Glad you are okay. Our power is now back on.
hey
wow, i am glad to hear that all’s ok in bahia! this one lasted at least a minute, and the first half was strong!!! it slowly settled into a slow salsa sort of shake… i see where another has shaken on the solomon islands – a 6.5 after two other 7.0s in one week. madre tierra is letting off some tension, and i hope she’s finished for a while!
it would be great to see you, but let’s let carnival week get past and maybe we can get john and mary to come up from san clemente, and i come down from jama for a long lunch hour in bahia!
z
7.0, that is so scary. Glad you’re okay. I’d be panic…
thanks; i’ve experienced many earthquakes, so they don’t spook me too much. this one did make me switch to ‘survival’ mode! you might surprise yourself; when faced with a sudden and unexpected problem, we often reach down and find strength and courage! z
Wow, I certainly don’t want to be there. I’m sure I’ll hear about this on today’s news. In the Philippines, I experienced so many earthquakes. Here in BC, Canada, hardly any. Take Care.
the solomon islands have really been getting more than the usual share of large temblors. seems like mother earth lobbed one to columbia before focusing again on the solomons. let’s hope that she’s finished stretching for a while.
thanks for your comment!
z
Glad you are safe, Z! We’re still finding cracks in our house from a milder trembler a year and a half ago.
i found some hairline cracks in the cement – first floor of the house, but these farm houses built with wood are pretty flexible, thank goodness.
thank you for your feedback!
z
Glad to know you are safe. This one sounds huge! I have felt smaller tremors from the Indonesian quake and know how scary it can be. I too ran out with just the things you mention. Might be wise to keep a contingency bag all ready to grab and run in an emergency 🙂
i often think of stowing away an emergency bag in the hills!!!! hmmm, maybe i should! z
Terrifying power of the earth – but good to know just what’s precious and what’s not. Hope everyone else’s fine in your neck of the woods.
thank you! i always thought that i would want to grab ‘things’ that had sentimental value, but when it comes down to a possible life and death moment, you focus on being smart and to heck with anything that hinders that plan! z
I heard, glad yo are ok, take care hope the people of colombia re ok too.
si.. i have a friend in colombia and look forward t his report! z
Glad you safe, Z. Jerry Lee is entitrely appropriate.
how can one be frightened when jerry lee is shaking that stage?!!! thanks!
You see, snowstorms are nothing compared to what can happen in your part of the world 😉 Glad you are ok!
thanks, but if a 7.0 ever hit your area, it would be an eye opener!
this one ‘shook up’ the old timers in town! one lady in her 70’s told me that she was dressing when the temblor hit. she lives in a three-story house, and it frightened her! she could hardly stand for being nervous, could barely get dressed. she started burning incense and dabbed essential oils on all of her pulse points! hours later she was still burning the incense!
glad to see that you have power!
Never mind 7.0—if a 3.5 hit NYC, which is quite possible as it’s happened once or twice at least in the past several centuries, many of the old unreinforced masonry and brick buildings would come down. And we live in one such 😦
yikes. ‘they’ say that earthquakes often follow big storms (hurricanes).. i hope that’s not true for snowstorms.
with this one, i keep waiting for the other shoe to drop… maybe the one in the solomon islands balanced it out for a while. z
Let’s hope so! 🙂
i think the new madrid would tremble before one in your area. there’s not much history of earthquakes there.. is there?! the solomon islands received another 5.2 = that’s good! z
I think there’s a fault offshore that has historically produced earthquakes—small ones, but strong enough to produce damage in NYC given the city’s unpreparedness…
Good to see your subsequent posts. “Rollers” and “shakers” are equally unnerving, and I imagine a long one especially so. I’ve been in several, but they’ve been short. I did have opportunity to see a tile floor in California ripple – you could see the “waves” moving through, just like through water.
I went back and looked – you’d not commented, so we may not have “met” yet when I wrote about the abandon ship bag . Everyone needs to think about it. I focus on hurricanes, but fires, tornados, earthquakes – they all demand a response!
We’ll hope that everything’s settled, save for the aftershocks which may come.
hey
thanks for pointing me to the abandon ship post! i’ve decided to take a little bag to the nearby hills and bury it for one of those ‘just in case’ moments.. couldn’t hurt!
Hugs to you! We had a small 3.8 this morning and last week we were on tsunami alert because of the Quakes in the Solomons. Poor Solomons. Glad you are all okay.
no kidding about the ‘poor solomons.’ they are getting hammered with earthquakes. the map is amazing! z
Whoa, z! So glad you’re ok. I guess it takes something like that to show you what’s important in life. Be safe. ~ Gem
si! you are so right! maybe others will ponder, ‘what if i had five minutes to clear out or risk being injured or death….’
it’s a great mental exercise for sure!
z
What a relief to hear you are ok that would be such a scary experience to go through.It would certainly put your possessions in perspective when you can only grab what you consider essential, but it is sad to think of all that gets lost in these terrible disasters. I’m thinking of all your beautiful art. Fortunately earthquakes is one thing we do not have to worry about over here.
I love that Jerry Lee Lewis song, so appropriate
thanks, amiga, for your feedback! i am surprised that you aren’t affected by earthquakes! they go all the way around you, but don’t affect the country? amazing, especially with all of the shaking the solomon islands have been getting recently.
i can always paint more paintings, but thank you for being concerned about my art!!!!
lisa/z
Wow! I’ve never been through an earthquake and I hope I never have to deal with them. We worry about tornodos, but we are warned ahead of time. I don’t envy you. I suppose even paradise has its drawbacks!
hey
i replied to this but who knows where it landed?!!
thanks; i did my share of tornado dodging in mississippi’s ‘tornado alley’ .. guess we can’t hide from mother nature! z
We often have earthquakes here like this, but we don’t need it to have no electricity. That happens daily.
Yikes, that sounds alarming. Glad you are okay. I have never experienced this and after reading your account, I hope I don’t.
hey
you would surely keep your head and stay calm! we do what we have to do, and hope that all turns out well! sometimes mother nature gives us warning signals, and other times she protests with no warning!
Glad all is well.
I am glad you are fine and safe, and everyone else in your area too.
thank you; all seems calm again. shhhhh, don’t wake the baby!
Glad to hear you are safe Z. We experienced an earthquake and two strong aftershocks in OK last year. They can be a little disconcerting.
your feedback about OK made me think, “fracking?”
i don’t associate oklahoma with earthquakes! one never knows where mother earth will decide to relieve some tension!
Oklahoma is a state that has the most bizarre weather, and fracking, now there’s a dirty word, isn’t it? 😦
your comment just gave me an unexpected chuckle. yes, it’s a dirty word!
i associate tornadoes with oklahoma, and of course we’ve always had our share of tornadoes in mississippi where i grew up. yesterday’s in hattisburg looked pretty nasty.
We have family in OK and while there last year we experienced earthquakes, tornadoes, hail, flooding, and high winds, all within 3 days. Sounds like the end of time, doesn’t it (lol)? 😉
I’m glad you are okay. Be safe and be well!
thanks! i hope that mother earth will mind her manners for a while! z
Thanks for the “front line” report Lisa. You’re the only artist I know who monitors the USGS website. Very impressive. And BTW, how did the early warning bed perform? Glad you’re OK.
hey! i thought about you after that shaking! it happened one day before the new moon!
this particular earthquake shook the bed, the house, the trees, and put ‘cellulite-like’ dimples in the surface of the river!
Interesting report of the effects. I hadn’t heard about the “cellulite” effect before. In physics these are called “standing waves” because they appear to remain in one place. I suspect that they were caused by the complex vibrations of the river gravel. Very interesting. Keep the reports comin’.
if i am at the house when another strong one hits, i promise to go outside and study the river!!! i was looking at the river, the trees, the birds…. so much to absorb!
Wow, I’m glad you’re safe, Lisa! You seem so calm about the whole thing… ??
i’m lucky that few things ‘rattle’ me. thanks! z
My god that’s scary. Glad you’re OK Lisa. I also live on an earthquake fault line..
thanks rosie; yes those of us who live along that ring of fire get accustomed to those tremors, but every so often one comes along and reminds us that we are mere ants! i dreamt of small tsunamis last night – in a land and with people i’d never seen… i managed to stay above the waves, i”m sure there’s a more profound message there than just survival from drowning!
z
I survived the 1989 earthquake which was 7.2. I slept fully clothed for a month on the couch with a flashlight in my pocket. It is amazing that your quake went on for a minute and I will be it was the longest minute you ever experienced! Be safe my friend!
i understand about sleeping in your clothes and w/a flashlight handy! because of so many power failures, i always know where my flashlight is located! z