Weekend Freewrite 2/3/2018 Prompt Option: Earthquake
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1983 Borah Peak Earthquake
My wife and I were living in the city of Idaho Falls, Idaho and we were still asleep in our waterbed when the shock wave from the Borah Peak earthquake rolled through. I was a very light sleeper at that time and I woke up to the sound of something tinkling, just a small unusual sound that I didn't recognize. Soon the sound graduated to a rattle and I was starting to sit up in bed and find out what my wife was doing over there on her side to make that annoying noise, but then I heard it coming. Now my wife and I were both awake and sitting up in the partial light of morning sun beginning to sift through the blinds and curtains. The sound got louder until it was a roar while at the same time the vibrations became stronger until everything was shaking. Things in the house broke and the house popped and creaked, the water in our bed sloshed around beneath us. After a few seconds, the shaking started to subside and then we could hear the roaring sound receding into the distance.
We got up and took inventory, we didn't have a lot in the way of material possessions at that time and nothing important had been broken. We found small cracks in a couple of walls and in one of the ceilings but nothing that a coat of paint wouldn't repair. We were very fortunate, but we were about eighty miles from the epicenter, one hundred and fifty by road. Many of the people living near the epicenter suffered severe damage to their homes and outbuildings, and the landscape in some locations was changed significantly. The mountain actually sank several feet and shifted to the side a few feet. That is a big mountain to be moving around! The saddest part was that two school children waiting on a bus were killed.
I was too dumb at the time to be frightened during this earthquake, but looking back on it now I'm not in any hurry to experience another one. It is a helpless feeling when the ground beneath your feet becomes unstable, or your house threatens to cave in on top of you. There are places in the world where earthquakes are less likely to occur, but nowhere is completely safe. Since that earthquake so many years ago I have always taken out earthquake insurance on my home, no matter where I lived. It doesn't cost much, and once you've felt the power and the helplessness of it all you realize how easy it would be to lose everything to one of these scary events.
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**Disclaimer: I often use the freewrite prompt to tell a story instead of doing a pure freewrite, so they sometimes take longer than 5 minutes and usually have some editing. But I try to do my story straight through at one sitting without any unnecessary breaks.
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Prompt: earthquake
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Thank you @mariannewest
That doesn't sound like a fun way to wake up at all. And those poor children...it's awful. Were there warning signs in place ( emergency broadcast or the like)?
No, there was no warning at all. I told my wife that I wrote about this last night, she told me that she remembered being mad that I could just roll over and go back to sleep while she was still shaking in fear lol. I guess I got up later and inspected the house lol. That reaction was not unusual for me, when I was a teenager I woke up to the sounds of the whole house shaking and I could hear roofing tiles being ripped off, a small tornado passed right over the top of us and damaged our house and outbuildings. realizing what it was and hearing it move on off in the distance I went back to sleep. A couple of minutes later my Dad barged in and said: "Get up boy, it's raining in the house." He was not amused when I looked up at him and then around my bedroom and said: "It's not raining in here lol." The water was pouring in over his bed, otherwise, he would have probably gone back to sleep also.
Thanks for the second story as well! I'm picturing your poor father's expression, LOL. I wouldn't want to be woken by cold water raining down on me either!
While snacking on a tasty piece of Snook Fruit, I came across a delicious little platter of prompts left by the Goddess Marianne. As tempted as I was to keep them to myself, they looked too scrumptious not to share.
You have certainly been through some stuff in your time! I didn't know there was such a thing as earthquake insurance. I enjoyed you freewrite as usual even though it is scary :)
I have experienced a few rare events, I'm hoping that this trend does not continue. 😃
So far to me, droughts are one of the scariest disaster's and they create some of the worst hardships. I have been through several minor to severe droughts and I hate them.
Beep! Beep! This humvee will be patrolling by and assisting new veterans, retirees, and military members here on Steem. @shadow3scalpel will help by upvoting posts from a list of members maintained by @chairborne and responding to any questions replied to this comment.
That does sound very terrifying. I can't imagine a living through an earthquake, although I've lived through a couple of tornadoes that came awful close to the house. It's a wise thing that you are buying earthquake insurance ever since. On another note, an earthquake in a waterbed definitely would be very interesting. I think if I woke up during an earthquake and felt the bed rock and rolling I would be dreaming I was in a boat. It's very sa that the children died. Good freewrite!
was this a real story or fictional? I have never been in an earthquake myself. great job either way! glad you're ok if this was real!