As many of you may already know, Nicaragua has experienced quite a bit of "earth movement" in the last 8 days. On Thursday, April 10 at about 5:30 p.m. we were all at home when suddenly our whole house began to shake! Judah and Asher were already outside; the rest of us quickly ran outside for safety. Caleb was excited, Judah was especially afraid, Belen was worried and Asher, who was sitting on his tricycle in the driveway, said, "Woah!" (one of his few words).
We have experienced many tremors over the years. Some are barely perceptible unless you are sitting down; others are more obvious even if you're standing or driving. Some are short-lasting and others seem to have a rolling feeling that lasts up to 30 seconds or longer. This one was easily the strongest earthquake tremor we have ever felt. The power and cell phone service both went out immediately and was not restored for about 30-40 minutes. Although there was no damage to our house, several things were knocked over on shelves. It was reported as a 6.1 on the Richter scale and fairly close to Managua and shallow, which is why it was felt stronger than most others that are off-shore. A picture of one of the grocery stores we shop in shows how the shaking was enough to knock many of the cans off the shelves.
There have been numerous aftershocks from this quake. There was a significant one that measured 5.1 just 30 minutes later, causing us to evacuate our house again. Even this aftershock felt just as strong as anything else we've experienced. There have been 16 significant aftershocks and hundreds of smaller ones that are less perceptible. Although damage in Managua has been minimal, there were several homes that were damaged in a city called Nagarote. Much of the damage was partly due to poorly constructed houses that were not built to withstand earthquakes.
It is safe to say that the people of Managua are very nervous. After the first earthquake and a few aftershocks, the government issued a "red alert" and school was cancelled for the following day (the last day of school before Semana Santa -- Holy Week). A second quake the next day resulted in businesses, stores and malls being closed. Many people remember the big earthquake that leveled Managua in 1972 and have a strong fear of earthquakes. The media (which normally has fairly sensationalist tendencies) was predicting huge earthquakes, and some people slept outside their homes several nights for fear of more activity. Hospitals were evacuated and the media reported anything that would make this seem worse. Most recently, there was report of a 16 meter (52.5 foot) drop in the water level of Lake Managua, which may or may not be true. Semana Santa is normally a week when everyone in Managua goes to the beach, but this past weekend the beaches were empty!
We are not living in fear. Although we seem to be imagining small tremors more than normal (only some of which are real), we know and trust in God who is our protector and provider. Please pray for people who were legitimately affected by these earthquakes -- those who lost their homes or had significant damage. We are grateful that there were no deaths directly resulting from earthquake damage. We also know that God can use events like this to draw more people into a saving relationship with Him!
