earthquake

We just had a small earthquake in Cairo at 3:30 in the afternoon. (This is not an April Fool’s joke, by the way. I couldn’t think of a good one this year and decided not to do it.)

It was big enough to be unmistakable, but small enough that some might not have noticed it, if they were riding in a car or even walking on the sidewalk. And it was tiny enough that you might not see it in the news. It lasted only about 15 seconds, in two separate stages with a pause in between, and merely shook the building lightly. My outside doors were shaking, as was my whole room.

No mistaking it. That was a real earthquake, the third I’ve felt in my life. The first two were in Los Angeles (1994) and Cairo (in around 2003).

Egypt has not traditionally been an earthquake-prone country, but there was a pretty bad one in Cairo in 1992.