We just got an email from our friends Rick and Anne (who have been generous enough to take care of our dog Tinker while we’re galavanting around the world). Rick asked, “You all OK from the earthquake?”
I had to check the internet news to find out what he was talking about. Associated Press reported:
A powerful magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the coast of Chile on Sunday, swaying buildings in the capital of Santiago…The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:57 a.m. local time and was centered 40 miles west-southwest of the city of Constitucion and about 225 miles south of Santiago, the capital.”
Oddly enough, we started this morning in Linares, which as you can see on the map above is very close to the epicenter, and were driving toward Santiago when the quake hit. But as I learned in California’s 1994 Northridge quake, you just don’t feel the earth shake when you’re barreling down the freeway at 70 miles per hour.
That being said, I’m not sure if anyone in Santiago felt today’s temblor, either. We arrived in Chile’s capital city at about 1:00 pm. No one at the hotel mentioned it. No one at the rental car agency mentioned it. No one else has mentioned it all day long.
In other words, all is well. No harm, no foul.