That's right!
Portugal had an earthquake today.
Fortunately it was nothing too serious like the one that recently happened in Peru and took lives.
However, this was the biggest we had in many years (around 60 years). We have frequent but light seismic activity. We don't feel most of the weak earthquakes that are only detected by proper equipment.
This time was a bit different!
I was at work, minding my own business in my laptop and suddenly the roaring started! We are not used to live with earthquakes so we had the same thoughts: "It's a large truck passing by." In no time, everything started shaking vigorously. We all left the building and went to a open area.
Then and only then it stopped. We waited for a while and tried to find out more details via phone and internet.
The news arrived fast. It was a 4.9 in Richter scale and the epicenter was not far from us. We were close to Évora and the epicenter was close to Arraiolos.
Regarding damages, nothing was reported to the authorities in the hours following the event. I heard about a minor electricity failure in a nearby city but I wasn't able to confirm it. This is a rural region and although the cities are old (and so are the majority of the buildings) there aren't high buildings or large structures tha might constitute an additional danger.
The vibrations were felt in almost the entire continental Portugal and also in the nearest Spanish territory.
Ok, so before the earthquake everything was going well at work. It was the first day back in the University after the two days we worked in another place (Workplace ready).
After work it was time for one more (actually three) Karate class, so... I'm a happy guy.
See you tomorrow!
RMach