The Night the Earth Moved

I was rudely awakened last night at about 1:10 AM by my bed violently shaking. I knew in an instant that it was an earthquake. Dishes were rattling and things were falling and landing on the floor making an alarming racket. Thankfully nothing breakable made it to the floor, just mostly hairspray, mousse skin cream etc. that were either on the night stand or on top of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. The ironing board fell over, pictures were askew and the fridge had moved about 2 inches. Anyhow I leapt out of bed to stagger outside and suddenly realized I needed to get dressed. Well, by the time I got dressed, got the door unlocked and got outside of course it had quit. I would say it lasted 20-30 sec. When I got outside other households were also standing out on their steps.

UPDATE: I just came from my friends house and he says that it lasted a lot longer than I think because it built up to the shaking. He says it started out rolling and then suddenly changed to the violent shaking. He got out to his living room and after it had apparently stopped his end table was still rocking back and forth on crooked legs. He steadied it with his hand but when he took his hand off it continued to rock for about 2-3 minutes after. He says the water in his pool was sloshing back and forth. He said several windows broke in taller buildings downtown. Apparently it made the news on CNN

So here is a map of it. The epicenter was near the Costa Rica border 35 miles from David. It was a 6.2 on the Richter scale and rated a 6 in David. Ivan tells me it was a shakedown for my house in Sortova, we'll see if the plaster cracked. The house here was unscathed but our new house is 20 miles closer to the epicenter. The original quake was followed by a smaller one magnitude 4.7 at 1:58. In total there were 4 perceptual tremors throughout the night.

The good news is that the reporting center states there is only a 10% chance of a quake of greater magnitude occurring at this site in the next 50 years. Just another day in paradise!