At 3:20 a.m. this morning a horrible rumble shook Napa Valley, as historic buildings fractured, water lines broke, fires started, thousands of wine bottles (and probably a hundred thousand wine glasses) fell from cabinets and even wine barrels toppled off of their stands.  Epicenter of a 6.1 earthquake hit Southwest Napa and energy shot northward. Napa town got struck the worst. Still in all, I’ve heard of no fatalities yet but hurt people sent to the hospital by the many dozens, injuries mostly from broken glass.  Chunks of bricks shook off of Napa’s historic courthouse, and a handful of other historic structures badly injured, as inventory of many local businesses has been decimated in downtown.  We’re still watching news, as the power only was restored a little over an hour ago.

First thing I thought as I was shaken awake in the early morning hours from a jarring swaying motion rocking our rugged post & beam house, and as sounds of crashing objects shattered the night silence, and flashing like lightening I saw out of the windows in the distance, was that all of California had been leveled. I thought earthquake-prone San Francisco would be ground zero if we felt it so hard way up here in the mountains of Napa Valley.  I worried while still half asleep that those flashes were fire, but they were only transformers blowing as the power went out in Napa & Sonoma valleys. I was shocked a couple of hours later when talking to my brother (my nieces father) who lives a ways north of Napa Valley who had been privy to breaking news (excuse the pun) that WE were the epicenter!

Now having a noontime cup of tea I am realizing how lucky we were.  California is earthquake country, this is the third frightful earthquake I have personally experienced in my lifetime, while the memories of little shakes are soon forgotten, the eerie memory of the really dramatic ones are etched in my mind forever.

The worst of the crashing things in our house up on the mountain (not in the town) was in my knitting loft…

Just a few things fell off of my desk, camera & tripod fell over, and a small crack in my Osborne mandolin, it mostly it went out of tune (though of course this is not my main playing mandolin, so no worries there!)  A couple of the large rock stacks which stand along our walk toppled . . .

So you see, everything is fine here in our neck of the woods, up on Mt Veeder in Northwest Napa, we’re just a little shook up is all, and Emma very insecure, as dogs become in these incidents.  Now back to some straightening up & knitting to calm down, and staying out of the chaos in town for a few days and put everything back in place.

If you would like to find out more information about the earthquake which has hit Napa this morning, there is already a wikipedia page up on the net, which is still being updated, here.