Earthquakes

Costa Rica Earthquake

Don’t know if it’s made the news up there, but we’ve experienced several earthquakes yesterday and today. The biggest today hit 6.2 on the Richter. The epicenter was only 42 kms away, near a semi-active volcano — Poas. I was driving at the time. It’s a weird feeling when the road begins to move under you. The aftershocks continued for a couple of hours.

We arrived at the bank after the first one. Everybody was on the street. We waited inside for a teller to arrive. Eventually a young man appeared behind the cage. I began to explain my business referring to a document in my hand.

Suddenly there was an aftershock. I looked up and he was gone! I waited for five minutes before he reappeared, shaking. This happened twice.

All of our neighbors were outside their houses when we arrived home. Not much damage around here. One neighbor lost a TV that fell off a shelf and broke. Another lost some dishes. One neighbor explained that it’s the earth dancing. Personally I’d prefer a slow waltz to a salsa.

However, two young girls were killed in a landslide near the epicenter.

If you look at a map of Costa Rica, you will note that several active volcanoes exist on a north-south line through the country. Actually the line extends from the Andes straight through California to Alaska. The volcanos lie on the edge of tectonic plates. Lots of activity here!

I felt the last tremor right after I took the first sip of a martini. Boy, that’s one helluva martini!

Oops, just felt another one!

Day 2:

Yesterday I realized that I was a trifle cavalier in my reporting. This paper, La Nacion, reported that at least 14 people were killed and 400 people, mostly tourists, are stranded. The paper shows photos of damaged houses, landslides, roads, cars and goods scattered all over the floor of a grocery store.

The epicenter lies in an area that is very popular for tourists. It includes La Poas volcano and La Paz waterfall gardens. Many tourists are caught at La Paz with no power and not much food.

At school we saw many helicopters flying to and from the afflicted area.

Chuck and Anzie