I had just left the office at 6:40ish and Ali had come to meet me. Just as we met, the ground started to ripple and an almighty roar surrounded us. We had never experienced this reaction when we met before...!
The earthquake centred in Sikkim Nepal border just north east of us registered 6.9 on Ricther, so a chunky earth vibration radiated out. Quaickly, friends around us were on their mobiles to see what was happening elsewhere. Yes, Kathmandu felt it, Chitwan felt it and within minutes we all knew the epicentre and size of the almighty roar. It was rather amazing. We had been in other earthquakes, maybe it was because we were close to this one, but the almighty roar was impressive. We were standing there about 20m away from a hillside which we knew was unstable as the monsoon had already scarred a few landslips on it. So we were just waiting for this hillside coming down and engulfing us. It was dark, we were out in the open, surely nothing could fall on us? Happily nothing did, nor did the hillside engulf us. It must have lasted at least 45 seconds, but we were rooted to the spot with the earth ripples giving our legs a decent massage. Scary.
Well after a lot of chat about each others experiences, families were fine, the tunnels were safe, no structural damage in our work - many had not been in an earthquake before, we returned home to find some of the tiles from our false ceiling had fallen on the floor. So a quick bit of maintenance, and things were back to normal with a few telling cracks in the tiles and a hole were one had crumbled too much for recovery. Same story in a number of other houses and in the office, 5 tiles fell on my desk - just a few minutes after I had left it.
What about that almighty roar? a train, a plane? yes sounded just like that only much bigger like it was going to come crashing through the hillside and gouge out a track in front of us coming to a terrific stop with things flying everywhere, as they do in the movies. But no, the roar died off and was only followed with a bit of an aftershock whimper, still big enough for a mini massage. But I think that's enough of that for a while...
The earthquake centred in Sikkim Nepal border just north east of us registered 6.9 on Ricther, so a chunky earth vibration radiated out. Quaickly, friends around us were on their mobiles to see what was happening elsewhere. Yes, Kathmandu felt it, Chitwan felt it and within minutes we all knew the epicentre and size of the almighty roar. It was rather amazing. We had been in other earthquakes, maybe it was because we were close to this one, but the almighty roar was impressive. We were standing there about 20m away from a hillside which we knew was unstable as the monsoon had already scarred a few landslips on it. So we were just waiting for this hillside coming down and engulfing us. It was dark, we were out in the open, surely nothing could fall on us? Happily nothing did, nor did the hillside engulf us. It must have lasted at least 45 seconds, but we were rooted to the spot with the earth ripples giving our legs a decent massage. Scary.
Well after a lot of chat about each others experiences, families were fine, the tunnels were safe, no structural damage in our work - many had not been in an earthquake before, we returned home to find some of the tiles from our false ceiling had fallen on the floor. So a quick bit of maintenance, and things were back to normal with a few telling cracks in the tiles and a hole were one had crumbled too much for recovery. Same story in a number of other houses and in the office, 5 tiles fell on my desk - just a few minutes after I had left it.
What about that almighty roar? a train, a plane? yes sounded just like that only much bigger like it was going to come crashing through the hillside and gouge out a track in front of us coming to a terrific stop with things flying everywhere, as they do in the movies. But no, the roar died off and was only followed with a bit of an aftershock whimper, still big enough for a mini massage. But I think that's enough of that for a while...
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