Earthquakes

The other night, I woke up to rumbling and shaking at 2:35 a.m. I laid in bed and thought, oh no, do I need to get out of bed? It slowed down and stopped pretty quickly, so I didn't actually get out of bed, but it was enough to keep me awake for a while that night. It was only a 4.3 aftershock, but that was enough to make me worry a bit.

People talk about the earthquakes frequently here. I find it in nursing notes in the patient charts. Things are dated as pre- or post-earthquake, as in cough started pre-earthquake. Conversations center around the damage and whether someone will have to demolish. People talk about the shaking. There is construction and rubble spread throughout the city. Some place were completely ruined while other were untouched. It's incredibly amazing that no one was killed. My nurse preceptor's husband works in construction, and she said that they have pretty strict building codes because of earthquakes, and it has saved lives. Many people are still worried about the quakes though. Patients at the hospital say that they can feel the aftershocks (probably because they are lying in bed) frequently. I never know if it actually a quake or if a truck is driving past.