I remember this day well in 2012. I turned off the light at 1:15 of the night on May 20th after reading a book on my Kindle. I felt a slight tremor. It was said that it wasn't a seismic zone, so I thought it was just the tail end of a distant quake. I looked for information on my phone but found nothing. At 4:03 in the morning, I woke up to a strong quake. I heard objects falling and glass breaking (which I later found out were from my neighbor's house), everything was shaking, and suddenly, I started hearing the sounds of buildings collapsing. I was 10 km from the epicenter but only found out hours later. I immediately turned on the light, but the power went out. When the power came back, all phone lines were down, but my trusty 1mbit/sec ADSL was working. I was alone at home. I went outside and, having experience with earthquakes, urged my neighbors (still in disbelief) to run to the end of the street, to a parking lot away from all buildings. Roof tiles could fall. Strong aftershocks followed in the minutes after. They would continue for months, and occasionally, you can still feel them.
There were many collapses in the area. Together with a neighbor (a surveyor), we inspected the building and found no visible problems. It was a recent building, only a few years old. I went back inside to have breakfast around 5, much to the surprise of my neighbors who were urging me to leave. I turned on TV and news were still uncertain. They were just talking about a very strong earthquake in the norther part of Bologna). There were strong tremors all day long. It was a strange day. My friends wanted me to go to their place, far away. I decided to stay. My neighbors wanted me to go with them to the shopping center parking lot to sleep in the car. I stayed home. Some neighbors slept in tents in their gardens for months out of fear. That night, I just slept dressed on the couch.
There are many other details of that day that will stay in my mind forever.
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