Happy Birthday, Tunguska Event!

[Richard Ryan]

Well toasted - up there with New England's Dark Day and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

--- On Tue, 6/29/10, David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Happy Birthday, Tunguska Event!
> To: "Pynchon-l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 11:41 PM
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
> 
> On June 30, 1908, as reported by an eyewitness:
> 
> "We had a hut by the river with my brother Chekaren. We
> were sleeping. 
> Suddenly we both woke up at the same time. Somebody shoved
> us. We heard 
> whistling and felt strong wind. Chekaren said, 'Can you
> hear all those 
> birds flying overhead?' We were both in the hut, couldn't
> see what was 
> going on outside. Suddenly, I got shoved again, this time
> so hard I fell
>  into the fire. I got scared. Chekaren got scared too. We
> started crying
>  out for father, mother, brother, but no one answered.
> There was noise 
> beyond the hut, we could hear trees falling down. Chekaren
> and I got out
>  of our sleeping bags and wanted to run out, but then the
> thunder 
> struck. This was the first thunder. The Earth began to move
> and rock, 
> wind hit our hut and knocked it over. My body was pushed
> down by sticks,
>  but my head was in the clear. Then I saw a wonder: trees
> were falling, 
> the branches were on fire, it became mighty bright, how can
> I say this, 
> as if there was a second sun, my eyes were hurting, I even
> closed them. 
> It was like what the Russians call lightning. And
> immediately there was a
>  loud thunderclap. This was the second thunder. The morning
> was sunny, 
> there were no clouds, our Sun was shining brightly as
> usual, and 
> suddenly there came a second one!
> 
> "Chekaren and I had some difficulty getting out from under
> the remains 
> of our hut. Then we saw that above, but in a different
> place, there was 
> another flash, and loud thunder came. This was the third
> thunder strike.
>  Wind came again, knocked us off our feet, struck against
> the fallen 
> trees.
> 
> "We looked at the fallen trees, watched the tree tops get
> snapped off, 
> watched the fires. Suddenly Chekaren yelled 'Look up' and
> pointed with 
> his hand. I looked there and saw another flash, and it made
> another 
> thunder. But the noise was less than before. This was the
> fourth strike,
>  like normal thunder.
> 
> "Now I remember well there was also one more thunder
> strike, but it was 
> small, and somewhere far away, where the Sun goes to
> sleep."    
>         
>           
>   
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