No, not another earthquake, although news reports claim there have been aftershocks. It lasted longer and did more damage here than I had realized. It actually lasted more than a minute - confirming my feeling that it went on "forever", although I assumed my feeling were an exageration or reality. Bradley thinks the house was moving back and forth one or two feet - I don't think it was that much, but think it was up to a foot. I've been in California during earthquakes that did not do damage, and this was multiple magnitudes above those. The house wasn't bouncing, it was moving. And it was very frightening.
In Placencia, primary damage was to the water system, not only to the tower, but breaks in underground pipes in 5 or 6 places. Here are a couple of pictures of the tower.
In Independence, across the lagoon, the water tower collapsed, and reportedly 7 or more houses were damaged or destroyed. About 10 miles down the coast in Monkey River Village, 27 houses met a similar fate. Earthquakes make the ground very fluid, and most of the houses there are on stilts (as are many along the coast). The stilts sank into the ground, in some cases 7 or 8 feet.
We're finally getting some wind again, which drives away the bugs, and creates some natural cooling.
Finally, last weekend Bradley went fishing with a couple of other guys on two different days (I didn't go because I don't fish and wanted to work on my boat) and came back with a lot of fish, primarily barracuda and grouper. This is a cropped photo of the catch that is practically abstract, at least to me.
Learned how to set the clock on this blog so it reflected the actual time I post, and your comments now post here as well as arrive in my e-mail - good to hear from you, Tim (Beth&Phil), Val and David!
2 comments:
So here it is 10:20 and Mikki and I are dozing at our c'puters like a couple of geezers. Mikki is playing the computer game "bedazzled" and I just wrote to my sister Lucy about tomorrow night.
I am curious about tsunami reports- the surf must have been spectacular- and what's the effect on the offshore cays and outer reef from such a large magnitude tremblor? When you said your concrete building moved about a foot, you didn't mean the whole thing moved literally a foot from where it was standing?
Did anything happen to your boat? I am going to switch to email and send you the latest draft of the Friends minutes- Hang on! David
Jenn said that she felt it in Managua (the earthquake).
Aside from the obviously harmful effects of earthquakes, they threaten our innate sense (albeit incorrect) that the ground is stable. I've done little reading about earthquakes, mainly about the aftermaths, which are not pretty. But there is quite a science developing about *building* in earthquake zones, having to do (as I remember it) with tieing the building together sufficiently that it acts as a unit. I forget whether it needs to be tied in an integral way with the ground, but I suspect that is also true.
That said, appropriately constructed buildings do not hop around...I picture them more as ships on the sea...bobbing, but not hopping (so much). That is, of course, easier said than done, especially if the builder holds the belief that the ground is perpetually stable.
Enough out of me...I'm only a fan of building; I don't build.
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