I’m disappointed that we couldn’t feel anything of the 4.3 magnitude earthquake in Kent from east London at 8:18 this morning (although I admit I was barely awake then). However, the reports coming onto the BBC site show exactly how the English cope with these kinds of events.
Compared to the recent earthquake in Japan, which was much more severe and killed a number of people, and which happened the day before I arrived but which there was very little panic over by the day after, our home-grown earthquakes are very low-key.
Some of the earthquake witness quotes are the best thing, though, and shows the true scale of the event and the way our nation responds to it:
“The seagulls went crazy and in parts of Dover the electricity is off.”
“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me.”
“I live near a popular area for dog walkers and no-one is about, everyone seems to be staying indoors wondering if there will be another one.”
“But the wardrobe doors were banging and sort of shaking and the bed actually felt like it was moving.”
And my favourite:
“I thought my wife had got cramp or something but then I saw the curtains were moving and the whole house was shaking. It lasted about 1.5 seconds.”
If they changed the headline to “Earthquake as violent as wife’s cramp hits Kent” then it would make my day.
BBC NEWS | UK | Earthquake shakes parts of Kent
BBC NEWS | UK | Eyewitnesses on the Kent tremors
Was struck by this too. The BBC were definitely scraping around for something to report in their live coverage. My favourite was a bloke on a telephone (when asked respond to reports that gas water and electricity had been cut off )saying that the broadband had gone off for about 10 minutes.Another guy said that he work up beside his wife and the bed was shaking.