Angelika It's no secret that we're living in an area that's often rattled by earthquakes. Small quakes are quite common, and most of them aren't even noticeable. Every once in a while, however, we get a rumble with magnitude 5 on the Richter scale, and depending on where the epicenter is located, it's not unusual that our house keeps swinging back and forth accordingly.
On August 24th at 3:30 a.m., it was swinging a bit more than usual. At this hour, most people are in bed and sleeping, just like we were that night. To this day, Michael claims that I would have slept through the earthquake, had he not woken me up. But that can't be right, I'm pretty sure I woke up right away, it's just that Michael had been up and about shortly before wandering around our appartment, because he thought he had heard someone skulking on the roof of our building, which is something that always gets his attention. That's probably why he wasn't sleeping that deeply. Anyway, were both in bed when the quake started, and waited in horror for a good 15 to 20 seconds until it was finally over. That probably doesn't sound like a long time, but it felt like an eternity. It's amazing what's rushing through your head in 15-20 seconds: Is this the big one? Is it going to get worse? When is it over? Why haven't I closed the closet sliding doors?
I was so glad we had just stocked up on bottled water at Costco the other day! What's interesting is that each earthquake feels differently. Some end with a big bang. The recent quake, however, had a rather smooth rolling motion to it. When it was over, we learned that the epicenter was very close to the city of American Canyon, near Napa Valley, the well-known California wine country. American Canyon is located about 35 miles north-east of San Francisco.
No major damages were reported in San Francisco. In our appartment, a book fell out of its Ikea shelf, and the Ikea bathroom cabinet's door had sprung open. The latter might be attributed to the fact that it was filled to the brim. In the city of Napa, however, the damages were severe. There were people injured, most of them suffering from cuts and bruises, and many houses are uninhabitable now. None of them actually collapsed, but some were so severely damaged that 130 of them were tagged red, which means that they are off-limits now. 1000 buildings were tagged yellow, which means that their use is limited, sometimes only particular parts can be inhabited. The economic damage is tremendous. Rumor has it that wine from the Napa region is going to be more expensive this year, since many vinyards suffered damages from the earthquake.