Apart from the disaster in Haiti, the local situation near where Jimmy Craig (that’s me) and my wife have our B&B in Italy is worse than we thought it was after the earthquake in December.

1. In the village of Spina, where the most damage occurred, there are a number of houses that were completely destroyed, including the house of our mason, which was one of a circle of five individual houses, all of which were destroyed. These were all recently built – roughly 10-20 years ago, and it’s amazing that no one was even injured in this thing.
2. In the village of Castiglione della Valle, only two km as the bird flies (to drive there is about 5 km from the B&B), a number of houses were damaged, and no small number of them have been condemned or partially condemned (for example, the top floor is no longer livable). I believe these were mostly older buildings (“older” being at least 50 years old or so).
3. In the village of San Biagio della Valle, the clock tower was damaged, the clock no longer functions, and the area around the tower has been blocked off because of the danger of falling masonry. The only visible damage I have seen is a stone wall that fell, the rest of the damage seems to be structural that is not particularly visible.
4. The old (about 150 years old) farm house at the entrance of the gravel road to the B&B also had the upper floor condemned. To be honest, that doesn’t surprise me very much; it’s possible that it may have been condemned in an inspection before the earthquake, had it occurred.
5. In addition to this damage, the local roads have suffered even more than usual from the movement of the soil – this area in general is quite unstable, and roads often develop waves and troughs in addition to cracks.

The thing that surprises me about this (relatively small) earthquake is that the major damage occurred about 8 km (5 miles) from the epicenter. I always thought that the worst damage would be at (or directly above) the epicenter. Apparently here there is a fault line or an old volcanic vent that runs to the southeast from the actual epicenter, which was only 2 km below the surface (for reference, there are oil and gas wells that are twice that deep!). The village of Fontignano is only about 1 km from the epicenter, but didn’t experience nearly the violence that Spina had.

For me, the things to be learned here are

• the local geology is very complex and fractured through a number of different events, including continental plate movements and ancient volcanic activity
• earthquakes, even relatively mild ones, can be dangerous and deadly, and we were very lucky
• I’m no geologist!

Two other notes:

• if the houses and other buildings in Haiti were subjected to the scrutiny that the buildings were here in our area, probably not one building that was still standing after the Haitian earthquake could be classified as being intact and without damage
• as was noted on many of the news broadcasts, the buildings in Haiti were strengthened against high winds and heavy rain, not earthquake. As a result, there was considerable damage from the earthquake to buildings that looked solid, but were not built to withstand that sort of energy.

Anyway, from my point of view, that can be the last earthquake I experience personally, and I will not miss the rest!

As a last note, if you are interested in earthquake history and statistics, I suggest you take a look at the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre website for a live list of seismic activity world wide, 24×7.

Thanks for looking in!

Jimmy Craig
for
Sue & Craig Websites

Mother Nature Strikes Back – Part 2

For those of you who heard about it, at 2:13 pm [note: that was the time my grandfather clock stopped, officially it was reported to have been 2:11pm] on 15 December 2009, there was an light-medium-strength earthquake (4.2 Richter) centered under the town of Spina, about 4km (2.5 mi) due south of Tenuta Collicello as the crow flies. There was minor damage in Spina with some uncertainty if there is any structural damage in the town center. We felt (and heard) the movement at Tenuta Collicello, but there was no damage, only about two seconds of “rock and roll.” Apparently there was an after-shock of 2.3 Richter, but we did not feel that one at all. Our Internet connection continued to function during and after the quake, and the landline and portable telephone systems were still online, but after about five minutes, they were virtually unusable because they were totally overloaded with calls. Again, “for the record,” the phone systems were again overloaded around 7:30-8:30 pm as people discovered on the evening TV news that the quake had occurred, and tried to call friends and relatives in the area.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in this area. In the five years we have been on site here, this is only the second we have felt. In any case, the house is built to modern earthquake-resistant standards, and should withstand a much stronger quake, should one occur. Finally (also “for the record”), there are many more earthquakes in California than in Umbria! Conclusion: you should leave California and move to Umbria!

Actually, we’re trying to get back to Switzerland, but we need to sell the house here first. The three things that struck me about the earthquake are (1) how absolutely helpless you are to do anything about it, (2) the sensation that I had been put into one of these cups that is used for scrambling dice, and shaken up like that, even though I wasn’t even moved out of my chair, and (3) our two dogs and three cats seem to have been as surprised as I was – I have always heard that the animals can sense that something is coming, but that apparently was not true in this case. I’m sure I’m not the first to have these impressions, and certainly won’t be the last, either, but report them I can (and now have! ).

We now have heard that there were about 400 cases of damage reported to the local authorities in Spina; as far as I can figure out, that’s more than two per residence (population is 573)! There were also reports of some potential damage in the villages Sant`Apollinare (pop. 61, about 2km west of Spina), Pieve Caina (pop. 58, about 2,5km north-north-west of Spina) and our village San Biagio della Valle (pop. 449, about 4km north-north-east of Spina). Reportedly, 90 people were kept out of their homes by the authorities due to potential problems of structural damage and gas leaks, two people were hospitalised, and five others were treated for injuries and released.

My wife was eating lunch in a restaurant in Marsciano, about 10 km south of Spina, as the bird flies, and she didn’t feel anything, although others in town did (including another woman in the restaurant), some even running into the streets (which this other woman did, without explanation).

Needless to say, I hope that is the last ‘quake we will experience here – stronger or weaker!

Jimmy Craig
for
Sue & Craig Websites

Mother Nature Strikes Back