That situation made me uncomfortable, wanting to sleep and not being able to do it is a very unpleasant feeling. Occasionally I would raise my head to see the time on the set-top box of the television set, and when I wanted to wrap myself up I would hear a loud noise and saw that the ceiling of the room was moving, I heard a thunderous noise and I sat on the bed, I turned my head to look at the console of the air conditioning, it moved and sounded and I was paralyzed just waiting for it to fall to the floor. He thought that if he fell he had to disconnect it, that's why he did not take his eyes off her.
At the same time I felt that my bed was moving and at the same time I saw that the whole house did too: its walls and ceiling moved, but more gloomy was the noise that I heard and I was shocked that the movement that was generated in the house It was really thunderous.
These movements lasted about 15 seconds, fifteen seconds in which the dark and immensely disturbing noise covered the whole area; The whole space sounded resounding.
An earthquake had just passed, I left the room and turned on the light; The tenant who is in a room on the ground floor, calls me - Mrs. Marisol - I saw her leave her room and I told her - did you feel the earthquake? - yes- she answered, all afraid and scared.
I told him to go up and then I opened the balcony door to see the street and the houses of the neighbors; In front of my house the neighbors turned on their lights, three houses, left them on for about 30 minutes.
Beside my house on the right hand lives one of my sisters, I waited for him to go out to his balcony, but he did not, turned on the light of the stairs but did not leave the house. I really do not know if she felt it or it was her husband who turned on the light.
Suddenly, he leaves an annex of the house that I have also rented, another tenant: Mrs. Marisol- she says to me, all afraid, surprised and frightened. - Yes - I answered. - My God that horror, it is horrible, it was very strong; I jump out of bed and pass my daughter over. - He tells me, explaining his experience about the earthquake we just felt. - It was horrible. - We answer the other tenant and I simultaneously.
I have two rooms rented in my house and an annex, the annex was my office where I worked, but I had to enable it as an apartment to rent it, considering the critical situation we live in Venezuela, where the source of work is over and In my case, as an architect, it has been very difficult for me to continue living with my career.
The crisis has allowed building materials to become scarce and if there are no materials to build any civil works, there are no projects to carry out. - One thing leads to the other.-A little calmer, we sat and talked about the earthquake, it was cold, the temperature had dropped to about 23 degrees Celsius; We were explaining what we had lived again and again, we repeated the same thing, again and again. We laughed, we reviewed the news and comments online on the cell phone. We read the information from FUNVISIS, The Venezuelan Foundation for Research and Seismology, informs that the earthquake was 5.2 and 5.5 km from the city of El Pilar, in the Benítez Municipality of Sucre State, Northwest of our city of Carúpano.
We were shocked by what we had experienced, we commented on how thunderous it was. The noise was really shocking, and I relived the movement of the ceiling, the movement of the air conditioning console, the noises that the movements generated, what we did, our movements, our impact and I really was very scared.
Maybe it was that when he saw the house moving, he thought he would fall, that was really the fear he felt. That the house falls without being able to control it, impressed me a lot.
I build houses, buildings and some other civil works, I know what it means. I know the constructive system of the works, and only think, see and feel how such a large mass is moved, and not just a house, but thousands of houses, in different municipalities, in different states of Venezuela. It is simply impressive the magnitude of the movement that is generated to move any number of hectares of land with their buildings on top. It is really fearful the power of the earth and its uncontrollable movements.
Today I felt very proud to build with such care, with so much caution, with such meticulousness and complying with the standards required for the different constructions I make. Sometimes the workers are annoyed by how demanding I am in the works and today, more secure than ever, and corroborating what I have lived, I think that I do not care about their discomfort, for that I am trained, to do things well.
We build homes and spaces for people to live and it is the people we must protect when we build. Because earthquakes do not kill people, what kills people are the houses and buildings that fall with the movements of the earth and it is the rubble that kills people; When a road is broken and a vehicle is passing at that precise moment in the place, those coincidences are what cause an earthquake to be dead.
At 6:30 am the roof, the bed, the whole house shake. It is another earthquake without so much noise, but with more movements, abrupt and firm. We leave the same, scared and with greater fear, that two earthquakes with the same characteristics occur, it is very suspicious. This otherness was 4.5 on the Richter scale and lasted 11 seconds and was 4.3 km from San José de Aerocuar, in the municipality of San José. To the Northeast of our city of Carúpano, Sucre state.
After talking and commenting again and again for about 40 minutes, we showed our fear of what happened. Two earthquakes simultaneously and of the same characteristics was something not lived, not experienced. We went back to bed, we were sleepless and scared.
At 1:29 p.m. another earthquake, just as strong, of 4.3 on the Richter scale abruptly moved the chairs, made us scream and run away, as it is not normal for three earthquakes of significant and similar magnitudes to progressively happen. This really did not seem real, and fear seized us.
Classes were suspended in the state and businesses closed their doors.
And after talking and commenting that it was not a joke, or is not a game, we started to exclaim comments of surprise, amazement and fear. We were afraid of what was happening, at 4 minutes, another strong and violent movement made us run again- What's wrong? -This is not normal, this is not real- Four earthquakes is not normal. Very strong tremors. - It is not normal.
I AM FEARFUL AND I WANT TO SLEEP DRESSED THIS NIGHT, BECAUSE I DO NOT FEEL SURE OF THESE IMPREDIBLE MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH.
The construction of buildings is a genius and we must do it very carefully, with a lot of professionalism, always thinking about the people who will use these spaces wrapped in beautiful and defined volumes that give us the function of lair, with comfortable spaces to live, to to share, to play, to study, to walk, to buy.
Functional spaces to perform our daily activities. We design and build our dens, comfortable, beautiful, but above all safe.
Safe to protect both the weather and nature and above all, an earthquake, the people who will spend the night there.
I made a tour of the house looking for faults or fractures, it is so unpredictable that it does not seem real. Four very strong earthquakes. I could feel about 6 weak aftershocks during the day; But these simultaneous strong tremors have me very worried, they are very suspicious. I did not find any faults in the house, its walls, ceiling and floors are fine, everything is fine, thank God.
I'm happy with nothing to regret. Nothing was damaged. Everything is fine, the houses and the road, but the unfounded fear persists. We reassured ourselves. Life goes on.
We can not leave everything to God, we also have to help GOD ... because he said it:
"HELP ME I WILL HELP YOU".
