Shaken, not stirred

My parents might soon be the proud owners of beach front property.

OK, that wasn't funny. An earthquake - yeah, those tectonic plate-induced ground shaking thingies - of 6.0 magnitude rocked my hometown this morning.

Nobody wants to wake to the sound of their mother screaming and crying, especially at 6 in the morning, but that's what happened today.

My mom made it sound like sulfur was raining down on town, but it sounds like she had good reason. This is Wells we're talking about here. We don't get earthquakes. Sure, we get the occasional blizzard or smoky fire season, but never earthquakes - especially not that bad (a 5.9 killed like 52 people in Africa last year).

I'm told that 7.0 is the magic number for a really horrible earthquake, but from what I hear 6.0 isn't exactly a relaxing experience.

My dad had just brought my mom a cup of coffee in bed when the earthquake hit, and the mug flew about 15 feet in the air and hit the middle of a window during the quake.

Fortunately, nobody in my family was hurt and our home wasn't damaged. That would have been catastrophic. My mom and dad have built the house entirely on their own, and it's a point of pride for all of us. And, of course, we don't have earthquake insurance, because, well, it Wells and we never have earthquakes. So nice job with the construction, dad.

Gov. Jim Gibbons was in town to survey the damage. The RGJ also had coverage (and yes, they mentioned that Wells has not one, but two brothels) and photos (photo No. 3 was taken in my uncle's store and the "unidentified man" is my grandpa).

The damage looks pretty bad in the photos, but those are all of the "historic district" that was mostly heavily hit. The main loss in this is, obviously, the historic value of the buildings from when Wells was a booming (seriously) railroad town.

But those buildings were mostly old and decrepit anyway, and, to be honest, the earthquake probably took care of what should have been done long ago. Besides, nobody really lives in them, so it was the best place for it to happen.

Even though it doesn't sound like there are going to be many lost homes, the real damage is what all the people are going through. Most of the damage was in the form of collapsed chimneys, which can be fixed. But many home are without water and heat at the moment, which isn't a good thing when you consider that Wells is also going through its harshest winter in about 25 years and temperatures dip well below 0 at night sometimes.

And while the damage wasn't catastrophic in a life-taking, house flattening sort of way, it's still pretty bad. In our house, everything that wasn't screwed to the wall was destroyed. Translation - most of the stuff my parents have accrued during 20-plus years of marriage, and many of the relics from my childhood, are ruined.

I guess I'm fortunate that most of my stuff is here with me in Reno, but it was tough listening to my mom choke back tears as she started cleaning up inside. I feel so bad for her and dad, and all the other people I grew up around.

From what I can gather, most every family in Wells is going through the same thing.

The town's main water lines broke and the high school is pretty heavily damaged, and I guess a few dozen families have to stay in shelters.

Most of my friends are heading home from various places to help clean up, but my parents want me to stay in Reno. I guess I'll just have to follow along on the internet and news.

I didn't think Wells would ever be the main story on CNN.com, even if the Serbians did cut our time in the spotlight short.