Earthquake!

The East Coast experienced an earthquake on Tuesday! I didn't feel anything here in Kentucky, though I heard it was felt in 22 states. I was worried because my husband was in Maryland, on business. Maryland isn't that far from the epicenter in Virginia. The first thing I did was call his cell phone, but of course the call would not go through. Apparently cell phone service was down all over the East Coast, so I wasn't surprised. The next thing I did was get out a map so I could see exactly how far from the epicenter he was. Then I just kept watching the news.

We don't get many earthquakes in these parts; tornadoes yes, but not many earthquakes. We had one a couple of years ago, in the middle of the night. I woke up to a strange sensation; everything in my bedroom was rattling. Lampshades on lamps, pictures on the wall, loose items on dressers. Everything was just kind of dancing around. I didn't feel it, I just heard it. I remember thinking "oh, an earthquake" then going back to sleep.

The strongest earthquake I have experienced was in Israel. We were in the resort town of Eilat which is at the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, on the Red Sea. We were on the eighth floor of a hotel when everything began swaying. The hotel swayed back and forth; it was mesmerizing to look out the window and see everything jiggling and bouncing around. Apparently they are pretty common in that area. We had been to Masada the day before and rode the cable car up the side of the mountain. We were very glad it hadn't happened then!

Well, my husband finally called me yesterday, about two hours later. I asked him if they evacuated the building he was in. He said, no, they knew it was an earthquake but just kept right on with their meeting.