Earthquake News

In a short 4 months we've been through the coldest winter in the last 50 years and now we've been on the edge of the largest earthquake in 30 years. It's been an experience. We were teaching English at a petroleum company when all of a sudden the floor and building began to move and rumble beneath our feet. We ran down the stairs and out of the building and waiting for things to quiet down. It was interesting, two foreigners and about 200 nationals all wondering what to do next. Since we were 35 miles from the epicenter the damage was not great in our town and it didn't take long for traffic to be on its way. We quickly boarded a bus and headed for home. Since every building and every business was evacuated and people were sent home for the day the normal bus ride of one hour took over two hours. Standing on a crowded bus for two hours wasn't what we'd planned for the day.
We've been able to get in and out of our apartment sometimes with and elevator sometimes without. (Why did we choose to live on the 8th floor?) We've plenty of food and water, and the electricity has been on all of the time. We spent the night in our own bed interuppted by a couple of aftershocks and two phone calls. Needless to say we're looking forward to a solid night of sleep.
A blessing was that we were not in our regular office building. Our office is on the 15th floor and our colleagues tell us it was awful. The swaying was so bad they couldn't walk so they huddled under tables until the tremor stopped.
We're hoping that it's all over for now. Thanks for thinking of us.