Omigosh An Earthquake!

It's what I fear most because we live in a high-rise building that's 40 stories and we live on the 36th floor. In the aftermath of the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, I live in fear of earthquakes especially since the Philippines lies along the Pacific ring of fire that have frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Well, we just had a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Manila (according to the news) early this morning. I woke up at around 1:20AM because I felt our bed swaying a little. I sat up in bed thinking that maybe I was feeling dizzy from waking up suddenly. The swaying continued for what seemed like a very long time. The Twerp did not stir neither did Via's caregiver, her Tita Neneng.

When I felt the swaying stop, I debated whether to go down to the lobby. I waited a few minutes, then the swaying started again. I was praying that it would not get stronger than what I felt was a hammock slightly swaying. It stopped again after what felt like several minutes, although I guess it must have only been a minute. I thought then it would be a very weak earthquake. I logged online to check if there were any news of the earthquake but I saw none online. It just happened after all! It took a while for me to fall asleep again.

I was so surprised when my friend Bex sent me SMS about the earthquake at around 6AM saying there was an earthquake and it was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Manila. I checked for news online again as soon as I got to the office and found out that the epicenter was in Zambales, a province about 5 hours away from Manila and that there were several aftershocks. So what should we do during earthquakes again? Here is a checklist I got from the Red Cross website. If inside the building like we were:

• Drop, cover, and hold. Move as little as possible.


• If in bed, stay there, curl up, hold on and protect your head with a pillow.


• Stay away from windows to avoid being injured by shattered glass.


• Stay indoors until the shaking stops and make sure it's safe to exit. If you must leave the building after the shaking stops, take the stairs, not the elevator as there may be power outages.


• Sprinklers and fire alarms may go off.

For more information, visit the Red Cross website.