A note about the recent earthquakes in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

I just started this blog last weekend, but I’ve already had a couple of people note that I’m located in the area where we’ve had multiple earthquakes recently… they’ve asked what it’s like, so I thought I would just write a quick note about our experience here.

I lived in California for a couple of years, and so I had been in some small earthquakes and tremors before. These are definitely scarier (5.9, 5.7, 5.4, and 5.1… plus some sizable aftershocks), but only one was to the point where I thought to evacuate the building. We are about 60km from the epicenter, so the effect is already quite diminished here. We had a few books fall and one vase (one of my favorites, from Sardegna, of course) jump to the ground. Other than that, we have one freaked out dog and some worried family members. That’s about it here, locally.

There have been several meetings at the local grocery store to organize food donations for the families who have been left homeless, and I’ve heard of many people who have family closer to the epicenter who have gone to help.

Today has been fairly calm, but last night was a bit stressful. The aftershocks were fairly frequent – they are saying in the news there were over 800… but I would say I only felt a handful… enough to keep me awake, though!

To the families that have been affected, we hope that the money raised from the new petrol tax will find its way to them… I know that the people in this region are some of the nicest and most hospitable that I’ve met in Italy, so hopefully the families in the towns near the epicenter will find plenty of help.