It was Wednesday, September 5th. We started our day with our normal routine that we were slowly getting used to. Will walked Jack to school at 7:30 and then came back to start working upstairs. Emma and I started school at about the same time...we were only 3 days into homeschooling so we were still figuring things out. At around 8:40am, we were sitting at the dining room table and Emma had her headphones on doing her Math lesson on the computer. I suddenly felt a light shaking and looked up at Emma to see if she noticed. I told her to take her earphones off because I thought we were having a small earthquake and I didn't want her to miss it. Sometimes by the time you realize what's happening, it's over.
She started laughing and we just smiled at each other saying how cool it was that we were "really" feeling an earthquake together. From my experience, most of them are "temblors" and are finished in about 5 seconds.
Then things started shaking even harder.
And it wasn't stopping.
This was a true "terremoto"!
I remember looking up at our ceiling and our huge light fixtures were swinging so high by now that they were almost breaking against the walls around them. I heard our roof and walls cracking and I heard people yelling outside. I looked at Emma and said "I think we should do something...not just sit here". I tapped into my earthquake drills I learned in elementary school and remembered hearing that door frames are a safe place. I was 8 months pregnant, so making a run for it to get outside just wasn't an option. And besides, we have about 4 locks to get through before we would be outside. So I grabbed Emma, held her to me, and stood in the doorway between our dining room and kitchen. I had a perfect view of the whole house shaking and swaying. It was like something from a movie...it didn't seem real. I heard Will yelling for us then and I told him we were fine. He was sitting on the balcony and had a hard time standing up and getting down the stairs to us.
I'm not sure why...but Emma and I kept laughing and talking about how cool it was that we were experiencing a real earthquake. I don't think it crossed my mind to be scared since Emma was laughing so much. Since this was truly my first, I really didn't know if it was a big one or not. It seemed big to me, but what did this Memphian know? It ended up shaking hard for over 30 seconds which is a long time. The three of us ran outside to see if there was damage anywhere and if our neighbors were okay. They were out in the street laughing too and saying they were fine and we didn't see any damage anywhere. We just kept saying over and over how crazy that was! (Jack was at school on the playground and said it was awesome. Typical Jack.)
I immediately went inside to look up what magnitude that earthquake was. There are different reports that it was between a 7.6 and a 7.9 on the Richter scale with the epicenter about 80 miles away from us. To have an idea of how hard the shaking was, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 was a 7.0 magnitude. That means the earth here shook almost 9 times harder than that! The difference was the depth of it. It was very deep here...25 miles deep which caused very little damage compared to the Haiti earthquake that destroyed everything. We had over 600 aftershocks for about a week, some measuring over 4. We felt a lot of them which was honestly kind of scary. I think we're all a little jumpy now.
I couldn't help but think of these facts over and over again. The Lord really is in control of everything isn't He? Not only how hard the earth shakes, but even how deep it shakes to either protect or destroy. It's completely in His hands. His protection abounded that day. He protected the people of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. There was even a tsunami warning that never happened.
I was humbled at His power, might and mercy.
It was an experience I will never ever forget.
"He gives and takes away. My heart will choose to say.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Epicenter in Nicoya Peninsula
She started laughing and we just smiled at each other saying how cool it was that we were "really" feeling an earthquake together. From my experience, most of them are "temblors" and are finished in about 5 seconds.
Then things started shaking even harder.
And it wasn't stopping.
This was a true "terremoto"!
I remember looking up at our ceiling and our huge light fixtures were swinging so high by now that they were almost breaking against the walls around them. I heard our roof and walls cracking and I heard people yelling outside. I looked at Emma and said "I think we should do something...not just sit here". I tapped into my earthquake drills I learned in elementary school and remembered hearing that door frames are a safe place. I was 8 months pregnant, so making a run for it to get outside just wasn't an option. And besides, we have about 4 locks to get through before we would be outside. So I grabbed Emma, held her to me, and stood in the doorway between our dining room and kitchen. I had a perfect view of the whole house shaking and swaying. It was like something from a movie...it didn't seem real. I heard Will yelling for us then and I told him we were fine. He was sitting on the balcony and had a hard time standing up and getting down the stairs to us.
I'm not sure why...but Emma and I kept laughing and talking about how cool it was that we were experiencing a real earthquake. I don't think it crossed my mind to be scared since Emma was laughing so much. Since this was truly my first, I really didn't know if it was a big one or not. It seemed big to me, but what did this Memphian know? It ended up shaking hard for over 30 seconds which is a long time. The three of us ran outside to see if there was damage anywhere and if our neighbors were okay. They were out in the street laughing too and saying they were fine and we didn't see any damage anywhere. We just kept saying over and over how crazy that was! (Jack was at school on the playground and said it was awesome. Typical Jack.)
I immediately went inside to look up what magnitude that earthquake was. There are different reports that it was between a 7.6 and a 7.9 on the Richter scale with the epicenter about 80 miles away from us. To have an idea of how hard the shaking was, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 was a 7.0 magnitude. That means the earth here shook almost 9 times harder than that! The difference was the depth of it. It was very deep here...25 miles deep which caused very little damage compared to the Haiti earthquake that destroyed everything. We had over 600 aftershocks for about a week, some measuring over 4. We felt a lot of them which was honestly kind of scary. I think we're all a little jumpy now.
I couldn't help but think of these facts over and over again. The Lord really is in control of everything isn't He? Not only how hard the earth shakes, but even how deep it shakes to either protect or destroy. It's completely in His hands. His protection abounded that day. He protected the people of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. There was even a tsunami warning that never happened.
I was humbled at His power, might and mercy.
It was an experience I will never ever forget.
"He gives and takes away. My heart will choose to say.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Epicenter in Nicoya Peninsula
Supermarket in Alajuela
5th floor of the Puntarenas Hospital
Tivives Beach in Puntarenas
Riu Hotel in Guanacaste
A house in Esparza
Nandayure School
Bella Vista Church in Nandayure
Business building in Huacas, Guanacaste
Bridge fell in Sarapiqui
Office in Guanacaste
Road in San Carlos
Street in the city of Quesada
Community of El Castillo and Millon
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