I woke up this morning to find that the BBC had reported Lethal quake rattles tsunami zone. In Colombo and Sri Lanka in general we appear to be unaffected. We were watching a DVD in our apartment at 22:15 SL time, when the quake struck and didn't feel a thing. There are no reports of any tsunamis or any damage in Sri Lanka at all so far.
Still, those first few moments when I saw the headline did send panic through me. I hope I never have to go through again what I did in Phuket last Boxing day and the following few days. Let's hope that this was the secondary quake that was predicted and that this will be an end to it in this region for a while, at least.
My thoughts and sympathies go to those who have been affected by this latest quake.
EDIT & UPDATE
Our maid, Devica, who works for us and lives at Panadura, said that she was awoken around 23:00 by her husbands friends who had been evacuated from their houses as a precaution. Devica put up a number of friends and relatives for the night and finally got to bed around 02:30. She still turned up for work bless her.
Dhammika, who I work with, tried to ring us last night as she suspected we would not have seen or heard the warnings but we must have slept through the phone ringing.
So it does sound like people are more prepared than last time, which is encouraging news indeed. Much better to take these precautions and accept a false alarm than do nothing and take a chance a tsunami arrives.