Earthquake

When I got up this morning, there was a brief email sent by Alejandro written at 1:20 A.M. (11:20 P.M. Mexico City time).  He said that they had just had an earthquake.  He described it as "algo fuerte" (somewhat strong), but all was well.  

I immediately searched the internet for news reports.  The quake was centered near the city of Matias Romero, about 370 miles away from Mexico City in the southern state of Oaxaca.  It had a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale.  It was strongly felt in the city of Oaxaca, the state's capital.  In Mexico City, the alarms went off, although, according to the news report, the tremors were not even felt in some parts of the city.  Fortunately, there are no reports of casualties or damage anywhere.

Alejandro did not give any details, but I suspect that they were all in bed when the alarm went off.  They probably all trooped out to the street and waited there for a while.  I have experienced several mild tremors while in Mexico... one of them while at Alejandro's house.  We all headed outside.  It was a weird experience to feel the sidewalk vibrating beneath my feet.  

The family's house has survived countless tremors and two major quakes (1985 and 2017) without any damage.  The apartment building where I have bought a condo is built on bedrock.  In the 2017 quake, the damage to the apartment consisted of a couple of broken glasses that fell, and there was no significant damage anywhere in the neighborhood.