I feel duty bound to report that I was awake when “The Earthquake” happened yesterday (I clocked it in at 12:57, according to my radio signal controlled alarm clock).

It felt like the London Underground had run a branch line under the house and had just sent a particularly fast down the track. The whole place seemed to shake, heave a bit of a sigh and settle back into itself.

As we were lying in bed at the time it wasn’t too much of a problem, plus our chimney remained firmly in place so we’re ok there too.

However, if you check the Telegraph web site you’ll see that we had a type IV earthquake and from the number of reports the Telegraph readers sent in we probably  didn’t feel it as much as other towns. Or maybe we have a far lower Telegraph readership? Actually when I re-checked the stats I noticed that a lot of towns in Manchester (like Failsworth, Prestwich, Denton and others) had been shown separately. So if you’re sad and add up all those towns you get 522 reports from Telegraph readers. Which is great news or the Telegraph!

Earthquake History Repeats Itself

I remember having the same strange earthquake sensation as I was stood in a set of offices in Altrincham, near Manchester, when the last major earthquake to hit me struck. Probably in the late eighties/early nineties If you remember what the heat haze on a hot road looks like that’s exactly how the building walls seemed to go for a few seconds during the quake. it was highly surreal.

And of course, we British trooped out of the offices into a lovely sunny day and started chatting as thought earthquakes were just a normal part of every day life. Would you credit it?

Friends in that most populous quake hit area on West Coast America have told me that you should stand in a doorway as the strongest part of the building. Until we get a proper massive earthquake I suspect we’ll continue to look at each other and weakly joke, “did the Earth move for you?” I wonder how likely a massive quake is? And more to the point does our building contents cover earthquake damage if it does happen?