What a whopper!

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PW in Polemi
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Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:23 am
Location: A village in Paphos, Cyprus

What a whopper!

Post by PW in Polemi »

Just had an earthquake here, epicentre only 17km away, 5.5 mag.

Wow! First the rumble that sounded rather like a lot of heavy lorries driving by, then suddenly the shaking and rattling. I thought at first it was an explosion nearby. Fortunately, no apparent damage - buildings in Cyprus are built with lots of reinforced steel specifically to withstand 'quakes - and just when it had stopped and I was calming down, low and behold, an aftershock followed by several small wobbles.

It's weird. No dogs barked in warning, no dogs howled or barked during or after. Nothing.

:shock: Never been in such a biggie before, only had a "chair wobbler" till now. :lol: :lol:
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Yikes! :shock: I was born in Cyprus and my mother tells me I slept soundly through two real biggies when I was a baby - furniture moving, plates crashing to the floor, all that stuff. I don't think I'd sleep so soundly these days - I'd probably be in the streets shrieking "We're all gonna DIE!!!" like a proper panic-monkey :mrgreen:
Annew
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Post by Annew »

How scary :shock:

My dd lives in central China and experiences quite a lot of mini-earthquakes - she thought it was a train the first time it happened. A very daft comment as she lives on the 30th floor of a tower block and about 10 miles from a railway line :roll:

I've not long come back from New Zealand and one of the hotels I stayed in (in Christchurch) is the only one I have stayed in to have a comprehensive Earthquake Emergency Procedure displayed more prominently than Fire instructions - the whole idea of an earthquake gave me the willies....
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tavi
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Post by tavi »

oo-er a bit scary - we get a few "rattlers" too. Enough to wake you up during the night sometimes.

did you get under the table pw - like you're supposed to?
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

So sorry to hear about that PW. The quake always comes at you straight out of the blue, totally unexpected and it's the shock of that added to the rumbles and movement, which combine to make it very scary in the bigger earthquakes. Magnitude 5.5 is major in our part of the world so it must have been bad for you.

We have three dogs who live in the house with us. Two of them are absolute whimps when it comes to thunder and lightning, but with earthquakes none of them turn a hair. Not even a bark.
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

We are used to them here; the ground is almost a constant light tremor and then there are the biggies...not to mention the volcanic eruptions.......all got to go someday :lol:
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PW in Polemi
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Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:23 am
Location: A village in Paphos, Cyprus

Post by PW in Polemi »

Casscat, I think if it had happened while I was asleep, I would have slept through it too! :lol:

Tavi - no, I didn't get under the table, nor did I (or anybody else nearby) rush outside. These modern buildings are built to withstand much more than that and I was too concerned with thinking "woo, that's a biggie" to actually think of what I should have been doing :oops:

AndrewH - they've since upgraded it from 5.5 to 5.6 mag - not that I'd notice the difference :roll: - but like you say, it's the sheer noise made by everything you had previously considered solid and static, plus the fact that the solid earth (or in my case, the solid reinforced concrete floor) was moving under your feet, that's what really makes you stop and think rather hard about life. But like Pambon says, gotta go some day :D

Fortunately, very little damage was caused - although we're still keeping an eye on the level in our pool in case the underground pipes were ruptured - again. :roll:

For those of you who are interested, here's what the local paper had to say:

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/04/16/clean ... hos-quake/

What a shame about all that wine! :shock:
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

It made the UK papers too PW.
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

PW in Polemi wrote:Fortunately, very little damage was caused - although we're still keeping an eye on the level in our pool in case the underground pipes were ruptured - again. :roll:
Flexible pipe?
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PW in Polemi
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Location: A village in Paphos, Cyprus

Post by PW in Polemi »

Oh damn! That'll put people off coming on holiday now :(

No, Teapot, not flexible pipe. 4" rigid grey stuff leading from the overflow trough to the underground balance tank - which itself currently has a leak that OH is waiting for drier warmer weather to fix.
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