Blogging the Earthquake in China
Here are some more blogs writing about today’s earthquake in SW China.
I was at home with Katie and of our students just sitting on the couch in front of the window. My first thought was “Wow, the wind is really strong.” Katie thought a rat was under her chair for a second. Then we noticed the living room light fixture swaying precariously (I don’t think that fixture will survive much more shaking). What we felt in Yichang wasn’t strong enough to do any damage; however, in Sichuan province (to the west a few hundred miles) there are hundreds dead, thousands injured, and many people still trapped under collapsed buildings.
At about 2:45 today our building started swaying. Three of my quilting students were still in our apartment when one of them said…”I think the building is moving”. And…it was! The light fixture over the sofa was swaying back and forth and it felt really weird. Our entry door was open and it started making a strange sound against the door frame and the whole room was rocking. We were not shaking….just rocking. The rocking/swaying lasted much longer than a normal earthquake. ….So….at the time this was happening we were not sure if it really was an earthquake or some other strange thing happening to the building. Yikes!!! We decided we should get out of the building so we rushed into the stairway and walk down 36 floors.
We felt the quake today on our way home from Cody’s university. We were riding the 38 bus and our fellow companions were just as baffled as we were, as earthquakes in Chengdu are NOT common. The shakes we felt were small, (think grocery storefront kids ride) and we were surprised by how alarmed everyone around us was. All the buildings in Chengdu basically threw up their inhabitants into the streets which were a complete free-for-all that we got to experience when we got off our stranded bus and took to the streets. We ended up walking the 2 hours home as the traffic was completely grid-locked!
