Earthquake in Italy

I never thought I would be writing a post about an earthquake in Italy...but here I am. Just letting you all know that I am alive!

I woke up this morning to one of my roommates telling me about an Earthquake that happened in central Italy. I immediately went to cnn.com to check it out. And then figured I'd send a quick email to the parents knowing that they would be panicking when they saw the news. Figured I'd just tell everyone whats going on.

Luckily, Florence is a good distance away from where the actual earthquake took place, somewhere between Rome and Florence. Scary enough though, I was traveling through the area late last night coming home from my trip to Sorrento, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast (update on that later!) It is really scary to think that this happened so close to Florence, although everyone in Florence is functioning a-okay. From what I've been hearing it seems like a very bad earthquake. A magnitude of 6.3, the worst since 1980. Over 70 have been confirmed dead, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless. 15,000 buildings have collapsed. There was been a state of emergency declared while so many try to search for others and clean up the mess. (Oddly enough, yesterday when I was visiting Pompeii, the tour guide told us how worried they are about Mt. Vesuvius. It is still considered an active volcano but hasn't had any activity since the 1940's. Since then monitors have been installed but they aren't even sure they work since no activity has been recorded. If the volcano were to erupt hundreds of thousands of lives would be at risk since the area is so densely populated now. It was so interesting to learn about this but also such a coincidence that then there is an earthquake just hours later!)

Well, I didn't feel anything but others in my program swear they felt tremors in the night. I am so lucky to have been far enough away! I could have easily been driving though on the bus last night. Its just really scary and crazy to think about. I can honestly say, an earthquake was not one of my fears when coming to Italy to study abroad.

I'm staying tuned in to cnn.com for all the updates. Keep you posted!
Midterms this week so my weekend in Sorrento update might not come for a few days!