THE FOLKESTONE EARTHQUAKE
On Saturday morning (28th April
2007), during the 8 am Mass at St Peter's Church by Folkestone Harbour, an
earthquake of 4.3 on the Richter scale hit the town. One of the
congregation, said: "It reminded me of a wartime bomb going
off." After a short interruption to carry out a quick visual
check of the church building in case the spire was about to fall, and to
remove the dust and plaster from themselves, the service continued in the
relative safety of the vicarage study.
If you would like to support the repair work, please contact the Friends of St Peter’s. Speaking later, the Parish Priest, Fr. Stephen
Bould said: “We must hold in our prayers today everyone whose homes and whose
lives have been disrupted by this earthquake – including, of course, members
of our own congregation and people of our own parish, though there are people
affected throughout the town, and possibly further away. It makes you think with
horror of the absolutely awful damage that bigger earthquakes inflict, and
your imagination quickly reaches beyond the television pictures. At first, of
course, you’re assaulted by a crescendo of inexplicable noise, and you simply
have no idea what is causing the familiar feel and sound of the world to go
haywire. The fabric of society is shaken, too: immediately we were without
lost electricity and gas and landline phones with portable handsets wouldn’t
work; at the same time the streets were full of people talking, who’d never
seen each other before. Elsewhere in
Folkestone people were evacuated from damaged houses and had to be fed by the
Salvation Army, whose HQ is in that area and who did an absolutely wonderful
job. A few roads and pavements were closed or cordoned off. It’s not hard to
imagine the chaos that would be visited on either a remote mountain area in
winter or a big modern city by an earthquake of greater destructive power. At St Peter’s now we shall
need to move as fast as we can to look after the parts of our building that
have been affected - but we think that’s only the transepts and the south
chancel wall. The Lady Chapel and Sacred Heart Chapel are out of bound
till further notice, and access to the sacristy will have to be via the
chancel. The loss adjusters and the District Council Building Inspectors have
already visited the site, and the insurers have been informed; I have told
the diocese, and the wardens and I will see the architect next week. So we’re
all looking forward to a really exciting Baptism and Confirmation when Bishop
Keith comes on Wednesday.”
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
