Earthquake Update, Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Last night, the Chinese government, probably on the Shaanxi and Sezhuan provincial level, sent out several messages text messages to millions of residents warning of an imminent quake. The first was about 11.30 pm. They continued throughout the night. We went out around midnight and found many people camped outside. A few had pitched tents in our small playground/park area, others were just sitting around or sleeping on the ground. Old people sat and chatted, despite their obvious tension. Not understanding what was going on, kids played with each other, enjoying the excitement.

We went back inside and I set up two impromptu quake alarms - a bottle perched on the edge of a chair and an ash-try perched on the top of a door. If the building shook, they would fall down and wake us up. Besides that we prepared a bag with some food and water and collected important documents and put them in our coat pockets, all in readiness to leave the building in a hurry. In the end nothing happened, but the warnings haven't been retracted and people are still edgy. Many are wandering the streets, unsure as to what to do or where to go.

The dilemma I see is that a quake is difficult, if not impossible to predict. If one was coming, it could be in a day, a week or several months. You can't stay out in open ground all the time expecting it to happen. (According to the USGS website, quakes cannot be predicted.)

In any case, school and university classes, including my own, have been cancelled for the day. (I got a SMS about this from the Dean of the English department at 4.30 am!) We are also going to go out now, to see if department stores and the like are open, although it's probqably not a good idea to go inside. It would take a while to get out of the building if there really was a quake in the area. More later!