.WE.ARE.GNOMADS.

At 2:15ish am Thursday, May 28th a 7.2 earthquake hit Honduras

Our Minute by Minute Report

We have no cable or internet now so for the size we are going on what we felt and what others are saying. It was the biggest and longest mother I have ever felt. I was in San Francisco for the 1989 earthquake and felt the whole thing, and that was nothing compared to this large waved rumble of a thing.

I have watched those ghost hunter shows and movies about demons, I swear it was like our bed was possessed. When I was fully awake I realized it was not just the bed, but the building and not just the building, the earth underneath it.

I grabbed Jim and I said, “It’s an earthquake!”

He moaned and then mumbled, “No its not.” And probably tried to go back to sleep, but the longevity of it finally woke him up.

I was thinking about my years of teaching kids Earthquake Safety through the Red Cross in the San Francisco Bay Area. I knew we should do something, but in this circumstance the bed was the safest. If you are in bed, you are supposed get under the covers. We barely sleep with sheets here, so that would not have helped us. Since our walls are made of cement blocks and plaster we have nothing on them (can’t get nails into them and tape just peels off in the humidity) and the shelving unit that is our closet only has clothes on it…we were in no danger of falling or flying objects. So we rode this bronco of an earthquake out, and then got out of bed.

Everyone in our building came out of their apartments (there are 5 apts.) and started talking. No one had felt anything like this before as well and were very shaken (no pun intended), more so then us Californian earthquake old timers. Two business owners left to check on their investments, but alas no real huge damage.

It is now 11:20am (Central) and we are still a bit in the dark, not literally since we do have electricity, but are still without internet and the cable we hook up to our computer now and then to watch TV. Not even sure if the papers had much to say about it this morning, but the word out on the street is that the epicenter was right off the coast from us near the Bay Islands. We also learned it was around a 7.0 on the Richter scale. We think some buildings went down in Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras which is a very large size city on the other side of the country. We did hear some people died in the center of the country in or around a town called Progresso as well. And yet another bridge is down. The floods in the winter (Oct – Dec.) usually take out bridges, but apparently one was not made to withstand large earthquakes.

We are now calling back to the states to let people know we are okay in case they heard about it. Paul, my step father, had not heard anything, but we have him checking online. My brother, where my Mom is visiting right now, was not available but I left a message for him. Jim is on the phone with his parents right now. They called here as they had already heard about it. They are giving us some updates, but not much more than we know already. They did give us a more accurate size of the earthquake, 7.1 or 7.2 and the epicenter was 75 miles directly off the coast of La Ceiba.

After that call, Jim called a friend that lives right outside of San Pedro Sula, the other large city in Honduras. San Pedro is around a 3 hour drive from here. The bridge that went down is the bridge between here, La Ceiba, and San Pedro, so we are not sure if we will be able to leave tomorrow for our trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. If the Catrachos (Hondurans) are one thing, they are resilient and I am sure the buses are up and running today. If they need a detour route, they will make one, even if they have to machete through the jungle!

We just hope we do not hear about the real damage later today or tomorrow. I think it is hard to get the news out here fast due to the remote location of some damaged places or just because the lack of news agencies. We are amazed La Ceiba does not have more damage due to the size and type of earthquake we felt. If this was San Francisco there would be buildings down, gas leaks, fires and general mayhem. In a country where general mayhem is the norm, a huge natural disaster brings calm. Go figure!

~ by My Gnome Little World on May 28, 2009.

Posted in April - June 2009, Year Away in Central America: Oct. 7, 2008 - Mid December, 2009
Tags: Caribbean Sea, Central America, Earthquakes, Honduras, Islands, La Ceiba, Natural disasters, temblors, terremotos, Travel