I am back, from an earthquake, 8.8 in Richter scale.
Last staurday 27th february, in the morning, at 3:34 AM, i was surfing Amiga related websites, my wife was playing on Facebook, both on our netbooks, in bed, while hearing some music on cable TV.
That 27th february was a special day for me, it was my 32nd birthday. A little bit earlier, about 00:10 my wife with my kids (I have a son of 3 and a daughter of 7) came to my bed with gifts and a candle for me to blow. I was so happy!
My kids went to bed, it was late! They fell asleep quickly.
My wife and I, stood awake, we decided to stay up a bit longer because we werent going out to entertain ourselves like we usually do (disco dancing, restaurant dinner, watching a movie, etc).
So back to the story, at 3:34 AM, the earth started to shake.
We are used to small sismic activity here in Chile, once or twice a month, nothing important, and then slightly noticeable.
But this time, it was different. The small sismic activity did not decrease after a few seconds, and that was weird. I told my wife about it and we both litteraly jumped from bed. As we allways planned, she went straight to the main door, opened it and stood still under the door frame. I rushed to my kids room, quickly and firmly grabbed them both while they were asleep and stopped under the frame of their bedroom door.
The earth was shaking much more violently than before, still it was bareable. Lights wen off. My kids woke up and understood it was a critical situation. I was holding them both firmly. My son cried to me:"Daddy, please hold me tighter". The earthquake was revealing itself, everything was noisy. I hugged both my kids, and told them in a very secure and firm voice that i loved them so much. Everything was falling inside the house, i could barely stand still. The furniture was alive and the floor seemed like a wavy sea. I was ready to die.
I dont know how much that earthquake lasted, but for me it was like eternity.
But like all bad things, the earthquake ended.
And then I understood that this birthday was special, and that I was given the best of gifts: The life of my entire family!!!
So, here in Chile is now monday 4:10 AM. We have just got electricity, internet and phone back. I am gratefull we survived, our house is in good shape and we dont have any food or water problems. Still the earth shakes every hour or so.
I logged in at Amiga.org and just wanted to thank we are alive!
