Steve: Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Steve:  I really hadn't intended to add another blog entry so soon.  Ain't no way I'm gonna be able to keep up this pace.  But yesterday's events made this entry pretty much obligatory.  So here goes:

We started the morning readying ourselves for our first ever surfing lesson.  We were all pretty pumped up about the idea, though nervous as hell about whether any of us actually had the necessary skills. I was rising from the couch after e-mailing Molly about surfing when the earth started to shake.  Now I've lived in California for the vast majority of my life.  I survived a pretty big quake in L.A. as a kid and even the big one in '89 in the Bay Area.  I've seen my share of quakes.  But this one shook me up in more than one way.  It lasted somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds I think.  Chloe and Carol had scooted underneath the patio table.  Josh and I were inside and chose the closest doorway to stand under.  Now when I stay "stand," I really mean "brace myself against the door frame" because there is no way in the world that I could have remained standing unaided for five seconds of it, much less the whole duration.  The kids were "freaked out" as they put it.  Carol and I were freaked out for our kids.  Nine or ten significant aftershocks later, I think we are a bit more figuratively rattled than literally so.  The house fared remarkably well.  Nothing broken that we can tell.

But that was only the very beginning of the adventure.  The power went out immediately and was not to come back for about nine hours, so communication was impossible.  We figured all was well and decided to go on with our day.  So we walked to surf school.  The owner was there but the teacher we had reserved was not.  We hung out for a bit but realized that something fishy was going on as people were leaving the beach.  Apparently there was a tsunami warning issued.  The surf school owner and I tried to communicate about it but my Spanish is still pretty weak, so we didn't know quite what to make of the situation.  He didn't seem in a hurry to leave, but apparently it is not recommended to begin learning how to surf on an actual tidal-wave.  I guess hangin' ten on a tsunami comes in a later lesson...

So we walked all around town trying to get a grasp on what was happening.  We searched for a place to eat lunch (couldn't open the fridge not knowing when power would be restored and not wanting the food to go bad.)  Nobody was open.  We heard conflicting reports from other locals who were lurking about concerning evacuation and getting to high ground.  We started packing up to make the walk (we have no car like the locals) and then realized we really had no idea exactly where to head or how to get there.  With one final attempt at seeking help we went to the restaurant across the street from our house.  A man was kind enough to offer us a ride in his truck if a tsunami was spotted in the distance on the way in.  He was apparently in contact with people who were in the know and wasn't about to go anywhere without confirmation.  So we plopped down in the chairs in the restaurant and proceeded to try to make an afternoon of it in a constant state of powerlessness and apprehension.  The kids did their home-school work with me.  We pretended to be cool about the whole situation.

Finally, after about three hours in the restaurant, the power came back on and we celebrated with an actual meal.  From what I've read about the quake, there never really should have been an alert for a tsunami, because the epicenter was actually under land a few miles from us, not under the ocean as is required to create a wave (at least that is how I understand it).  And apparently the alert was lifted quite quickly, but nobody in Samara seems to have gotten the memo.  The quake occured at about 8:30 in the morning.  People were still leaving town in droves well after noon.  Granted a few of the aftershocks were big enough to warrant vigilance.  And for all we knew, the quake could have started hundreds of miles away out to sea and the big wave was still on its way.  I don't know how fast tsunami type waves travel or even if it always the same speed or if the velocity increases with decreasing depth.  Sounds like a good science project for the kids!

In any case we got our power back on not too long after the restaurant did, and immediately took out all of the electronic devices that we seem to be completely dependent on these days.  We were a bit shocked, though grateful, to discover that so many of our friends and family had heard about the quake and were concerned for our safety.  We knew it was big, we didn't know it was world-news big.  But in the end, all is well.  Nobody is hurt.  Nothing is lost or broken.  And we've got our first big story of the trip.