We just had some drinks at the Hemp house garden, Hemp house's own little outdoor serving area, when suddenly a heavy wind rose and started shaking all the parasols and not long after it had started raining heavily. We, who had been considering giving up for a while already decided to ditch the place and go home so we headed down for the street to get a taxi. We stood there looking for a taxi for about 30 minutes in the rain, there were not many out and most of them were taken and the few that weren't ignored us for some reason.
The rain was still very heavy but rather than just standing there in it we decided to take a walk to a "nearby" McDonald's at TianFu square, only about 40 minutes walk it turned out, actually the goal was not TianFu square, I thought there was another one on the way there but that one was not a 24hours one. The one at TianFu was though but they were closed anyone, the staff was there and it was lit, but they had locked it up and when Aaron asked about it they claimed they were "preparing" for the 5am breakfast, it was only about 2am then.
We finally did get a taxi each then and not long after that I was home, just about 2 hours later than expected. Turns out there was a rather big aftershock just before the storm started, I guess it was just strong enough to be felt where we were but all the taxi drivers must have felt it.
Showing posts with label Quake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quake. Show all posts
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Day after
Today has been really really boring, first I hardly got any sleep because people kept messaging and calling me, I guess it was hard to sleep anyway because the weather has been really bad, this high pressure humidity that just makes you feel sick. And then all my classes were cancelled today, I suspect they will be tomorrow as well, so I basically slept until 11am and then had like boiled eggs for breakfast, since I actually didn't have anything else and the elevators were still turned off so I couldn't really go out anyway.
There were a few more aftershocks expected during the day and one of the actually managed to make an impression, I was watching a movie then though and it only lasted for like 10 seconds but I think it felt as powerful as the original quake. I spent the day watching South Park and a movie and I baked bread, which turned out great by the way.
In the evening I decided to go out to find some Internet, which the lack of is basically the reason for my extreme boredom these days, and to my extreme joy some of the elevators were up and running again, this made me happy mostly because I ran into some human fesis on my climb up last night, that was NOT pleasant.
Anyway, news has changed and the quake is now deemed to be 7.9 instead of 7.8, there are around ten thousand dead instead of the mere 100, which is horrible by the way, and all of Chengdu is basically stopped, not that anything has happened here. Mostly people has been treating themselves bad, they don't dare to sleep and hardly even stay inside the buildings, I personally find it perfectly fine though.
There were a few more aftershocks expected during the day and one of the actually managed to make an impression, I was watching a movie then though and it only lasted for like 10 seconds but I think it felt as powerful as the original quake. I spent the day watching South Park and a movie and I baked bread, which turned out great by the way.
In the evening I decided to go out to find some Internet, which the lack of is basically the reason for my extreme boredom these days, and to my extreme joy some of the elevators were up and running again, this made me happy mostly because I ran into some human fesis on my climb up last night, that was NOT pleasant.
Anyway, news has changed and the quake is now deemed to be 7.9 instead of 7.8, there are around ten thousand dead instead of the mere 100, which is horrible by the way, and all of Chengdu is basically stopped, not that anything has happened here. Mostly people has been treating themselves bad, they don't dare to sleep and hardly even stay inside the buildings, I personally find it perfectly fine though.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The world is shaking
It was about 2.30pm, I had gone home from my classes early due to a really bad stomach ache that nearly prevented me to stand up in class, in later reflection I think it might have been a warning sign for what was to happen later but I rather think it's just because of my recent travels to different food cultural places. So I was lying in my bed when suddenly I heard squeaking machinery and suddenly my room started shaking in an uncomfortable wobbling way. I was wondering to myself what the hell was going on with the subway construction or whatever and rose out of bed to check what was going on; the crane outside was swinging back and forth and that looked pretty scary, I saw people running around down on the streets and I started hearing the voices of my neighbours as they where gathering up and running out.
I did actually bother to go outside my door too but didn't bother to go any further, I was tired and from what I had seen on the street I figured that it would just be safer to stay, so I went back to bed and started to try and contact people, which didn't work out too well. Staying in bed worked perfectly fine actually, but contacting people was harder, the only one I managed to get a reply from was Joyce, and she couldn't find anything to tell me.
The main shake was actually pretty big, they say it was 7.8 in the epicenter and around 5 here in Chengdu, and on the 20Th floors I could feel it quite heavily, the only lasting effect I saw in my apartment though was my cutting board that fell over from it's standing leaning position over the sink and into the sink instead, that took about 2 seconds to correct, so basically no, I didn't feel scared: if my shelves with classes could hold up I figure the concrete building must manage as well.
I have no prior experience with earthquakes so I have nothing at all to compare to, the time it lasted seemed pretty long, like a few minuets, but the power of it didn't feel so bad to me, compared to what I've seen in movies and stuff at least, haha. I stayed in my apartment for a few hours after the main shock and there was an almost constant vibration in the building, I though it was just the building keeping shaking out of pure resonance or something but it turns out there have been as many as 44 or even more small aftershocks.
At about 5.30pm a friend messaged me and told me there would be another big shock at 7pm so I figured it would actually be safer to leave before the chaos started again, I got a pretty good view of the traffic chaos from my window, so I gathered up some stuff, like my passport and laptop and other important things, and headed down the 21 stairs (since the main entrance was blocked for some reason and I had to go down to the parking spaces under the building to get out) and went out for lunch. I had still not found anyone who could speak English so I had my hopes on a Taiwanese guy that has a small restaurant near my place, but of course he was closed so I went to the next door restaurant instead.
Then I went out to where I am right now, outside a closed Starbucks where I have both power and a wireless connection to play with (the biggest reason I went out at all was actually that my Internet at home was disconnected when I got back from Shanghai, probably because I haven't paid for it in a few months). Here I finally met some people speaking English and I managed to get my Internet running and got the information I felt I needed, so right now I'm pretty satisfied.
The quake itself had it's center around 90km northwest of Chengdu and about 10km underground, it reached a maximum of 7.8 and about 5 here in Chengdu at 2.28pm local time. The official death toll right now is 107 people and more than 37 more are injured, the first numbers we saw was 4 and 5 dead students (I think primary school or middle school students) somewhere, there are also new about some 900 students are buried under their school buildings but it doesn't say much more. From BBCnews.com
I did not experience any problem with power and water, out of the ordinary that is, my building loses power once in a while and when it did today it was nothing that couldn't happen any day, except perhaps that the whole building was out of power and not just my apartment, which is partly why I decided to stay in my room since I actually get light from the windows there. It might be that I actually live in a pretty good building, considering I had power all throughout the quake and when I lost it I actually got it back in about an hour or two.
I have actually been a lot more afraid than this, and probably with good cause, just experiencing the normal every day traffic here, I've had more than a few near death experiences so far. Saying this probably doesn't sooth the mind of a scared mother but what I'm trying to say that this is not really anything to worry about.
I did actually bother to go outside my door too but didn't bother to go any further, I was tired and from what I had seen on the street I figured that it would just be safer to stay, so I went back to bed and started to try and contact people, which didn't work out too well. Staying in bed worked perfectly fine actually, but contacting people was harder, the only one I managed to get a reply from was Joyce, and she couldn't find anything to tell me.
The main shake was actually pretty big, they say it was 7.8 in the epicenter and around 5 here in Chengdu, and on the 20Th floors I could feel it quite heavily, the only lasting effect I saw in my apartment though was my cutting board that fell over from it's standing leaning position over the sink and into the sink instead, that took about 2 seconds to correct, so basically no, I didn't feel scared: if my shelves with classes could hold up I figure the concrete building must manage as well.
I have no prior experience with earthquakes so I have nothing at all to compare to, the time it lasted seemed pretty long, like a few minuets, but the power of it didn't feel so bad to me, compared to what I've seen in movies and stuff at least, haha. I stayed in my apartment for a few hours after the main shock and there was an almost constant vibration in the building, I though it was just the building keeping shaking out of pure resonance or something but it turns out there have been as many as 44 or even more small aftershocks.
At about 5.30pm a friend messaged me and told me there would be another big shock at 7pm so I figured it would actually be safer to leave before the chaos started again, I got a pretty good view of the traffic chaos from my window, so I gathered up some stuff, like my passport and laptop and other important things, and headed down the 21 stairs (since the main entrance was blocked for some reason and I had to go down to the parking spaces under the building to get out) and went out for lunch. I had still not found anyone who could speak English so I had my hopes on a Taiwanese guy that has a small restaurant near my place, but of course he was closed so I went to the next door restaurant instead.Then I went out to where I am right now, outside a closed Starbucks where I have both power and a wireless connection to play with (the biggest reason I went out at all was actually that my Internet at home was disconnected when I got back from Shanghai, probably because I haven't paid for it in a few months). Here I finally met some people speaking English and I managed to get my Internet running and got the information I felt I needed, so right now I'm pretty satisfied.
The quake itself had it's center around 90km northwest of Chengdu and about 10km underground, it reached a maximum of 7.8 and about 5 here in Chengdu at 2.28pm local time. The official death toll right now is 107 people and more than 37 more are injured, the first numbers we saw was 4 and 5 dead students (I think primary school or middle school students) somewhere, there are also new about some 900 students are buried under their school buildings but it doesn't say much more. From BBCnews.com
I did not experience any problem with power and water, out of the ordinary that is, my building loses power once in a while and when it did today it was nothing that couldn't happen any day, except perhaps that the whole building was out of power and not just my apartment, which is partly why I decided to stay in my room since I actually get light from the windows there. It might be that I actually live in a pretty good building, considering I had power all throughout the quake and when I lost it I actually got it back in about an hour or two.
I have actually been a lot more afraid than this, and probably with good cause, just experiencing the normal every day traffic here, I've had more than a few near death experiences so far. Saying this probably doesn't sooth the mind of a scared mother but what I'm trying to say that this is not really anything to worry about.
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