This is the page of the Italian seismic authority showing all the recorded tremors since midnight last night for our area. Wherever it says “Perugia,” that means Norcia. The designation is by province and we are in the province of Perugia, but the lat/long 42.79, 13.12 is Norcia. Norcia is right down in the corner where three regions meet, so the places listed are a little misleading. If the epicentre is on the other side of the Marche border, it will be listed in a different province. the trick is to look at the numbers, and then you see they’re all just around the corner, if not right in our back yard.

This doesn’t include the big scary shaker last night about eleven pm. At first they told us it was a 4.2 but, as they often do, it was downgraded to a 3.5 but it shook the house pretty good.

It just keeps going and going. Woke up a couple times last night. It’s funny that you can hear it before you feel it. A rumble like thunder but it gets louder, like it’s getting closer, then the shake.

We had a good one while I was in the supermarket yesterday afternoon. It was pretty interesting. The little old lady ahead of me in the queue, who looked about 75 or so and had probably experienced quite a lot in her time, froze for about five seconds and then shrugged and carried on putting things in her bags. The middle aged housewives all looked like they were going to cry and immediately stopped everything to pull out their phones and call their children. There’s a considerable character divide between the generations in this country, and that was as good an illustration of it as any.

Fr. Cassian said they can’t even start assessing the damage until the tremors stop. I’m not very experienced with this but I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to still be getting big ones a week later.

~