28th February

I was brushing my teeth at about 12.56 am on Tuesday morning 26th Feb, just before getting into bed when the earthquake struck. At first several thoughts shot through my mind all at once, ranging from an air lock in the water pipes to a lorry crashing through the front of the house. As the roaring and grumbling sound got louder I realised what it was, having experienced one or two minor and lesser tremors some years ago. I would like to say that I remained calm and collected and pacified the rest of the family, but the truth is that I panicked , ran into the bedroom and yelled something like "What on earth is happening?" Lucy had woken up and shot into our bedroom by which time everything was quite again. I went outside into our front garden and onto the road, not yet convinced it was a tremor and wondering if a lorry had crashed or a plane had come down. Our neighbour stuck her head out of the bedroom window and asked if we had heard it and what was it? One or two lights went on in people's houses but no one else came out onto the street. I rang the police who told me that there had been a quake which was county wide. Not even they knew at that time that it was felt across the whole country. We switched on Five Live (radio station) and within minutes of the event they were reporting it and speaking to an American Seismologist who claimed the quake registered 4.7, the epicentre being just south of Kingston upon Hull. He wasn't far wrong. The quake actually registered 5.4 on the Richter scale and was 6 miles deep; the strongest quake in Britain for 24 years. I was amazed that our house suffered no damage at all and I haven't heard of any other local buildings being damaged. It got me wondering how bad it must be when whole communities in India, Pakistan and Japan are wiped out in a few seconds during a bigger and far more powerful earthquake?