Earthquake

A woman we chatted with outside our complex yesterday has lived in the area for over seventy years and has never felt an earthquake. We had definitely just felt one; I was home with my roommate at about 2:30 in the afternoon when we felt the floor shaking. At first we thought the washer was overloaded but quickly realized that the situation was much more serious and rushed down the stairs grabbing our shoes but not having time to put them on. When we got outside others were also pouring out of the buildings, many of who looked like they had been interrupted in the middle of naps and had also not taken time to put on clothes. Besides the uncertainty, the worst part was that phone lines were totally jammed so it was really hard to get in touch with anyone. We wandered around but nobody knew if it was safe to go back inside so we went around to the front gate of our building and there found some of our friends who lived nearby and had come to check on us. Most stores and restaurants were closing but the convenience stores were still open so we could buy water and snacks.

In our rush we had left our place without keys but managed to get a spare from a friend and finally got back in to check about 11:00 that night. We were very relieved to find our bird still alive! His cage had not even been knocked off its little shelf. We had our cupboard doors hanging open and stuff fallen off of the bathroom shelf but there was no other damage, not even any broken glasses. We were not locked out of our place (and the water and power stayed on) but we slept outdoors with our friends as a precaution. At the beginning it was kind of fun to be sleeping out in the open air since it was a nice mild night and we sang songs til about one in the morning. The parks were a pretty funny sight, people sleeping all over the place or sitting and playing cards and smoking away. Many people slept in their cars and I saw one family in a rickshaw - two women in the back, a man on the footrest with his head resting on the handle of their baby's carriage. Laying on the ground, we could still feel the odd tremor.

At about five it started raining so we decided to risk going back inside. We will be on alert for a few more hours but it definitely looks like the worst is over.