Once the world stops quaking, my groggy mind shifts into action. We need to make sure people are safe and that they feel secure. I quickly get dressed in the nearest clothes I can find and go outside where I assume I'll find my neighbors.
The head of maintenance is standing in his shorts with his family in front of their house and I shout across, asking him to help me check the houses. The university girls who live below have come upstairs because they are frightened. I tell them my plan is to check the houses and hand them the little flashlight I had beside my bed.
It is a struggle to find the more heavy duty flashlight that has fallen out of my closet. After knocking on the door next to mine, I conclude that the director and her husband have already headed over to check things out. When I try to call my parents to let them know I'm ok, I find there is no cell phone or internet signal. Makes sense. I notice it isn't even midnight yet as I slide my phone in my back pocket and head out into the rainy night.
We find all of the structures intact, and the staff and kids are milling around having various reactions to the event. The teenage girls are wandering around their house talking loudly, the little girls are already back in bed with their lights off, the teenage boys seem very reluctant to reenter their house despite our encouragement that it was ok, and one of the little boys will later need some minor first aid because a ceiling tile fell on his head during the earthquake. Next we grab two of the trucks and drive over to the oldest building on site and check on the staff there.
My phone dings as as a message finally makes it through. It is the executive director making sure we are alright. Wow, information sure travels fast! I give her a call and let her know how we're ok. She tells me it was an 8.0 magnitude earthquake (reports will later set it as an 8.2). I knew it was big, but I didn't realize how big. I also call my parents as I walk through puddles around the school building with my flashlight, not finding any new cracks there either.
Finally we return to staff housing and check on how things are going there. Some have gone back in, but others sit on their porches, fearing aftershocks. Drawing on information my dad, who studied seismology as an undergrad, I let them know that aftershocks can happen within minutes or days or even weeks - so waiting outside for an extended period of time is not always practical.
Once everyone is as settled as they can be, I watch the news for a while and sweep my broken pottery into a pile. Near 2:00am I decide that I really need to try to get some sleep for the day ahead. While I have sent out messages about school being canceled and us having a delayed meal schedule, I still want to get up early enough so that once the sun is lighting the sky I can be ready to get a better idea of our situation.
It takes a while, but I finally manage to nod off and get a few restful hours of sleep before my alarm wakes me back up at 5:00am. Last night almost seems like a dream, but the little changes in the world around me tell me it was very real. I am amazed at the lack of destruction and give thanks to God for our safety.
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| Image from nbcnews.com |
