I'm sorry for damage to the premises of those who were hit, but thank goodness there was no loss of life!
When i was in Ixtapa, Mex., an earthquake hit about 50 miles away. We were in a classy restaurant with the concierge of our hotel, a young man of 26 that we all just hit it off with. I was sitting there looking at the menu and started feeling as if I were getting nauseous. I happened to look at the black and white tiled floor and it was literally undulating in waves, and it still didn't register with we three women what was happening. Our waiter had been standing at the table and I saw our Mexican friend look up at him and he said, "tremblo" and I knew that meant earthquake!
It was an open air restaurant, and the street lamps outside were swaying back and forth as if they were in a hurricane. The entire restaurant became hushed, where you'd think everyone would be screaming, but parents were simply holding childrens' hands and looking at each other with concern, but no one panicked. Many were praying, though! Our friend put his hands out and held ours and said not to worry, that it wasn't happening here but somewhere else, and everything would be fine. After perhaps a full minute it all ended, and we went on with dinner, but when we went four miles up the coast back to our hotel, all the people were out on the beach. Apparently the elevator was jammed and other problems were happening, and many people chose to simply sleep on the beach, for fear an aftershock would come and do greater harm.
We found out the next morning, via newspapers, that it was a 7.0 quake! Very big one, but it hit in a mainly remote and unpopulated area with only one very small town, and no one was killed. I had called my husband, back in Wisconsin, to tell him we were OK, as I was sure he was hearing about this quake on the news back home, but he'd never heard a thing about it! Now if it had hit Mexico City, it would have been headlines, but since it didn't destroy any population centers I guess it wasn't newsworthy.
