NIEU-BETHESDA NEWS — At around 8pm on Monday evening, a 16-year-old schoolgirl residing in Nieu-Bethesda, called from her upstairs room in the water tower of her family home, concerned that there was something under her bed.
She said that it had been ‘shaking’ for more than a minute and that the key ring in the door was also swaying to and fro. Her mother looked under the bed and saw nothing, but the family dog continued to bark and show extreme agitation.
A little rattled, the family went to sleep, to discover later in the evening that there had been a major 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Botswana - the epicentre being near Ghanzi.
According to news postings, tremors were felt in Johannesburg, Durban and Griekwastad as well as many other places.
A Graaff-Reinetter reported that her dogs also went crazy around 8pm. According to other Nieu-Bethesda residents, the lights flickered around this time, but no one felt a tremor.
The fact that the water tower is multi-storied may have resulted in the tremor being felt here. While it seemed strange that the quake could have been felt this far South, there were reports from Sedgefield that it impacted there.
Social media made a humorous meal of the quake, claiming that it was a reverberation from the Rand hitting rock bottom and that the “Quake’s magnitude was 5 point one and two three”!
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