The Earth Moved Again - Sichuan Earthquake
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
13
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Wuhan,
Hubei,
China
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Having received my travel mails for (some of you) years now, you'd know this is by no means the first quake I've been through. And while it is the biggest, the one that hit Kaohsiung Boxing Day a couple of years ago felt more severe (not surprising since the epicenter was but 30 km away). But this quake was the longest and has the dubious honor of being the quake that has scared me the most. I think I always get a little worried when a quake hits, but after living in Taiwan for 7 years I kind of got over the primal fear of the earth shaking thing and slipped into an earthquake routine. Run for the strong parts of the building, preferably fully clothed (quakes and fire alarms often seem to occur when I am in a state of undress, which might be amusing for some, but not for me) with cell and passport in tow. I just wasn't expecting this to happen in Wuhan. It's not known for earthquakes.
Yesterday started off pretty ordinarily for a Monday. It's a day off for the teachers in my company. I got up, went to the gym for a session with the personal trainer. As per usual he kicked my butt. I already had jelly legs, but then he sent me to go up the equivalent of 140 flights of stairs on the wretched stairmaster. In retrospect, this is ironic. I wobbled home, where Em, JV and Lovelyn were having a late lunch in our apartment, which is on the 27th floor. I was sitting spaced out thinking that I ought to have a shower before I stunk the place out when I saw the lights swinging.
Then time seemed to speed up. First, we got the gas off, and opened the door to stand in the door frame. Wuhan doesn't get quakes, right? And there is no point trying to run outside when you have 27 flights of stairs to run down. But at some point it became apparent that this quake was really big, getting bigger and not about to stop anytime soon. Wuhan doesn't get quakes all the time like Taiwan, therefore its buildings are probably not up to withstanding them. We ran. I grabbed my cell and passport. JV (in a stroke of brilliance) grabbed her shoes, the rest of us ran out in slippers. The stairwell was crowded and the lights kept going off. I got separated from the others after I stopped to kick off my slippers and run in my socks. After all it would be really dumb if the building didn't fall down only to die because I tripped over my fluffy slippers and either fell to my death or got trampled by panicked neighbors, of which there were many... 16 apartments on each floor, 30 floors, about half the people at work or school, you do the math... I can see the headlines now "Australian suffers death by fluffy slippers" at least I was too lazy to shower as soon as I got back from the gym otherwise it might have been "naked foreigner found in rubble of apartment building"...well this is just babble really because the apartment building held (only one building fell in Wuhan that I know of and it was one storey), but I guess the point is that I was pretty damn terrified that it was going to fall down. Anyway, I got stuck behind an older man who I was too polite to push out of my way. He was going as fast as he could but it was not quite as fast as my legs wanted me to go. My mind was screaming at me that if this building came down and I got stuck in it because I'd been too polite, I was a fool. Lovelyn kept calling my name but couldn't see or hear me behind her, so Em sent her and JV ahead and hung back to try and find me and make sure I was alright. As we ran past each floor we saw people waiting for the elevator! JV said she also saw old men and women, unable to run, standing in the hall, grimly clutching door frames. The building kept swaying until we reached about the sixth floor. The lights kept going off, so that it was pitch black and every time it happened I couldn't hold back tears. Afterwards, we admitted we'd all had the same thought screaming in our heads. I don't want to die in China.
When we made it to the ground floor we raced out of the building and up the street, trying to find somewhere more open, to sit out the aftershocks. A hard task, considering all the enormous buildings in Hankou. We sat by the side of a road, crying, hugging and sending text messages. JV put on her shoes so that I could wear my Winnie the Pooh bathroom slippers, rather than walking about the streets in my socks. After our shuddering and crying (actually it was just Lovelyn, JV and I who were in tears, Em was much more stoic) had stopped and an hour had gone by without us feeling any aftershocks, we decided that we were all in great need of some beer. So we went to a shop and sat on the floor outside drinking beer on the street. We got stared at a lot more than usual... 4 foreigners sitting on the street drinking beer on a Monday afternoon, dressed in their slippers. A charming picture. But quite frankly after you've survived something so stressful, the pressure to conform to societal expectations simply disappears. You know, something along the lines of "I just ran down 27 flights of stairs and survived an earthquake, I can do whatever I like for the rest of the day!" We were just thankful there were no TV cameras about to film us and then broadcast it on the evening news. Some foreign hotel guests in Sichuan were less lucky. They were filmed outside their hotel in their bathrobes. Fear turned to exhilaration, until we started getting news via our cell phones of the magnitude of the quake and reports of deaths.
Despite feeling exhausted, I ended up watching DVDs until 7 this morning. I don't feel scared as such, but certainly uneasy. At the slightest creak, my head whips around so I can check to see if the lights are swinging, or the water in the dispenser is moving. And when I read reports, especially those about students caught in the rubble of their schools, tears sting my eyes. It's hard not to think about the public schools I teach at. 50 to 60 students in each classroom. Some schools are about 6 floors high. I hope and I pray that help comes quick. But all the while I feel extremely grateful that when fate was falling from the sky yesterday, mine was on the lucky side.
That's what I wish for all of you and your families. Good luck. I have faith that you are all strong enough to make the best of whatever situation life sends your way. But good luck is nothing the sniff at.
