6.0 Earthquake in Bukavu

Greetings from Bukavu !

Praise the LORD !
I was next to the transmitter rack at 9:30 AM when the earth Quake suddenly hit with force as no one in town has ever seen before, I would estimate closer to 7 on the Richter scale. The thousand pound rack with the two transmitters and 1000 Watt power supply began rocking back and forth violently ! I grabbed it with all my weight and force, steady it and to get to the off power switches and shut everything down. Danny our new journalist was stunned, but followed my suit and cut power to the rest of the equipment. We held on till it quit -- and after about 55 seconds it stopped and we were out the door in a flash.

Again, Praise the Lord for the hurricane that passed through last month knocking down trees ! It persuaded us to cut the top and heavy branches full of huge avocados, hanging dangerously over the studio and house on several sides. If not we would have been bombarded today and sleeping in the branches !

Which leads to a prayer request, Kathy and the Governor and every one else says "you'd better sleep outside," because they expect it to come back with a more powerful quake soon !!! I don't plan to sleep out in the mosquitoes, but Kathy and I probably will be on the couch with one eye and the doors open all night, as we have had to run for it every twenty to thirty minutes, all day long ! I stopped counting at 20 smaller tremors, some sudden and powerful.

The morning was spent picking up lamps and broken items in every part of the house, but ours was minor compared to an NGO compound a block away, where it tore down their whole brick wall. At the markets, and across city of Bukavu, and the South Kivu Province walls fell, sometimes injuring quite a few people. At this point there are at least 50 dead and many injured with churches and mosques crashing down during their 9 o'clock services.

At least one ship load of passengers were violently thrown around in the middle of Lake Kivu. The Epicenter is said to be at Mount Kahuzi that may becoming active again ! Another report indicated the fault under Lake Kivu may be slipping again, raising more fears of lava / magma seeping up through the huge methane gas reserves at the bottom of the lake ! Bukavu is right next to both, and straddling the seismically active fault that passes from the well known active volcanoes at Goma and down through the Ruzizzi Valley toward Burundi and Tanzania as part of the Great Rift Valley.

It is unfortunate that the seismographic equipment on Mt Kahuzi is in need of repair for the moment, but hopefully more specific scientific work is ongoing. Part of the city is in extreme danger of rock and mud slides if this continues, putting many of the 200,000 to one million population at risk.

We do covet your prayers and interest for a relatively unknown tropical paradise that has seemingly suffering on the edge of the abyss for so many years of war and violence against women and children by foreigners present. This they find equally terrifying and frustrating.

Keep Looking UP ! And Keep On Keeping ON !!

Love, Richard & Kathy

PS: The photo is taking too long so I'll try to follow with several photos.

Oh Kathy is at the door with her blanket and pillow. She wants to sleep in the car!

REUTERS NEWS: "African Quake Kills At Least 38, Hundreds Injured"
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSL03663384._CH_.2400