This WILL Leave You Quaking …

As luck would have it, I know a guy who knows a guy, who knows a guy named Ray.
Ray is an American in Chengdu. I have never met Ray, but I venture to say he is a remarkable man worthy of knowing. Ray was IN the earthquake. Here is his story in his own words that he wrote in an email home the day after on 13 May.
I don’t think he’ll mind that I am sharing this …

“Yesterday we had an earthquake. You probably saw it in the headlines.”

“HUGE quake. Definitely the biggest and longest I’ve ever experienced. I’ve heard 7.9. Wouldn’t surprise me at all. I was out of town yesterday riding my motorcycle in the mountains close to the center of the quake. We started at 7am and traveled to and then through Dujiangyan, to an area known as Qingchang Mountain. This is an area that resembles the small winding roads through the Blue Ridge mountains, with rock overhangs, blind curves, the river boiling just a sheer drop away beside you. The damage where I was was EXTENSIVE and the loss of life still unknown despite the numbers you have been hearing. The earthquake struck almost exactly at 3pm. Miraculous circumstances put us in a position of relative safety and the opportunity to help those around us who didn’t even realize what had happened, only that their homes had just fallen down around them and buried friends and loved ones. “

“We were paused in a semi clear space at an intersection when the initial shockwaves were felt, and watched in awe as it continued for longer than any quake I’ve ever experienced, literally lasting more than one minute, amid the roar of collapsing buildings and the sound of landslides crashing through vegetation, construction, and buildings. It is a sound I will never ever forget. As the dust settled the eerie sound of one of the highest peaks in the mountain range disintegrating and hurling trees, boulders the size of a van, and tons of red earth crashing down directly towards us set the adrenaline pumping! We hurriedly picked our motorcycles up off the ground where they had been tossed by the shaking earth like children’s toys. First we raced under fallen electrical lines, through brick and mortar debris, broken glass and roof tiles, then realizing that the way was blocked, we turned around and raced back in the other direction, down the mountain, only to find that a landslide had buried everything in its path, including the road. Locals began coming out of their homes, restaurants, and shops in the surrounding area, limping, crying, carrying their loved ones, all shell-shocked, half dressed, covered in dirt and dust and blood, and completely unable to comprehend what had just happened, we crossed a stable bridge to the parking area in front of a now-demolished hotel and began to watch the number of people joining us continue to grow. Everyone watched in disbelief as the mountain across the river continued to dislodge huge parts of itself and cascade them directly down towards us, wondering if it would ALL come down and bury us. The aftershocks were enormous. Many of them must have registered as earthquakes of their own magnitude.”

“So, to make a long story short, because I’m STARVING and want to get a hot shower… There were four of us out riding that day, John, a Peruvian, Charlie, an American, and a Chinese friend of John’s, Angie. We were trapped overnight in the parking lot of the hotel, and as people started coming, John, with Angie as his translator, got out his medicine kit and began doing his best to help with head wounds, broken bones, severed digits, etc… Charlie and I started by finding some canopies, blankets, mattresses, etc… Then we set up two fire pits, a gas stove top, and rounded up all the other necessities we could find. As the day progressed about 150 people found their way out of collapsed homes, from under rubble, and up the river from other areas. We were able to get everyone fed and cared for as best as possible, and just as it began to get darker, the rain began. I will never forget the next 12 cold wet hours lying on concrete under a dripping tarp and feeling the earth shaking violently beneath me every 20 minutes. Listening to the river growing more and more violent and threatening to tear away parts of the river bank loosened by the shaking. Hearing, the mountain that we could no longer see above and across from us, eroding and threatening to come down on us. At six the next morning, with the rain continuing, vicious and un-abating, our group decided that we must abandon hope of rescue, and move to a more populous and hopefully safer area. So we all set off through the mud and rain on a trek that would, in the end, take almost seven hours, through scary slippery paths, tropical vegetation, over hilltops half caved in and threatening to slide down the mountain and into the river with all of us, over suspension bridges, and around washed out or buried roads just to get everyone to a place where they could be picked up by buses and moved further down to safety.”

“For us, we all left our motorcycles there and will have to go back in a few weeks to get them. It only took all of our remaining money, four more hours, three van rides, and a taxi ride to get back to Chengdu!”

“As we came back into Chengdu, I was struck by how untouched the city’s buildings seem after the complete devastation in the areas we’d been through. However I just got here a little bit ago, and I am going out to have dinner with friends and see how things happened here. Something must have happened, when I got home my place was littered with things fallen from shelves. A lot of the locals slept out in the streets last night, and will be doing so again this evening. Fortunately for them, it’s not raining.”

“For me, the earthquake hit at 3pm on Monday. I finally got home at about 4 today and started writing this note immediately, even as I do, my apartment is still being hit by aftershocks strong enough to make the entire building sway. BUT, I am going to have a hot shower, a warm meal, and I am going to sleep in my own bed, swaying or not tonight! I am alive, and unhurt, and THANKFUL!”

“Thank you all for your prayers, emails, texts, and calls! I’m sorry about the communications delay, but I hope this explains it.”

Irwin Allen’s Aftermath

Tuesday morning …
Cell phones are back on line, though a bit spotty due to the expected huge volume of calls.
The airport was closed, but re-opened this morning. It will be a madhouse as all the diverted flights last night plus those normally scheduled to arrive today will all be trying to get here at the same time. Rail Lines are hit and miss. No idea about bus services. Naturally, all travel to quake areas has been suspended. Saw many trucks with bull dozers, etc headed west this morning.

Our guys (US and Chinese) are OK.
Some of our people have family in Dujianyan (essentially the epicenter), but I hear their families all report in OK. Since the cell phone system went down, the biggest enemy to us all was lack of communication with friends/family. That system was back up late last night, so now everyone has made contact and can relax a little.
The rural areas (you know; those “little” towns of 150,000+ people!) are the bad off areas. They will be the ones to struggle. Chengdu (by observation and local news) has very little damage though a few fatalities and some building damage, but those little towns were hit very hard.

However, on a less serious note, we did find some entertainment at the volume of people who refused to sleep indoors last night and camped out on the sidewalks, parks, town squares, etc. These mini refugee camps were everywhere and despite it raining all night, there they slept. As for us - we walked up our 11 flights of stairs and watched CNN and email until 10:30 and then crashed. Felt several aftershocks (the chandelier was our indicator) and even though there was a fairly strong aftershock at 05:00 AM – I slept normally through it (big surprise, huh?).
The weather was cool and breezy (normal for post quake weather? – I don’t know).
We wandered out to dinner and found a nice restaurant that was open. They were serving only a noodle/meat dish which was fine with us – at least it was open. We had a pretty good aftershock during dinner. Many other diners got real nervous and stood up to run, but it ended fairly quickly. We more or less ignored it. Most everything was closed, but those restaurants and quick marts that were open were doing a great job of serving everyone outdoors even if only one or two selections and all had candles in case the power went out. It was actually kind of like a giant street party; but with an “edginess” to it. The normally pushy Chinese folks were all reasonably calm and settled and just camped out/hung out generally peacefully.
Our hotel people were not allowed into hotel until 09:30 PM, but there is an outdoor café type area where they herded all the guests. The good news is that they served food, drinks, beer, etc – all on the house – until the “all clear’ was given. They had no hot water this morning, but other than that, they were OK.

Now we have to check all the machines for levelness, and all of the settings, verify lasers, roundness, other gauges, repair a few air lines and one pipe on a machine that leaked all over the floor, and get back to business. I worry that this will set us back a few days but can’t be sure until our machine guys complete their investigations.
Here is an interesting part … the technician to install and train on our fancy measuring machine (that can measure down to 0.000 008 inch) was here yesterday. Everything was cool until all of a sudden, it went haywire and the display started bouncing all over the place. The technician was very confused as to what was happening and then about 15 seconds later, the whole building starts shaking. So, this unit is now our own personal seismograph as it is apparently sensitive enough to “hear” an earthquake before we can feel it.

Our building came through pretty well. No real damage other than some ceiling tiles, a few broken air lines, some pipe fittings which leaked, 3 lights that fell and other fairly minor stuff. So the new building survived. The plant next door to us had some pretty significant exterior damage.

All in all – an exciting and a little unnerving - adventure. We still hope and pray that the outlying areas come out better than forecasted, but as one of our American team members stated: “We think we have all this technology and we can control our lives and our world, but really, we are just ‘bugs on the windshield’ of the universe.”

True.

An Irwin Allen Disaster Film?

I really don’t mean to make light of the earthquake here, because there are many people in a bad way, but this IS the first earthquake I have ever experienced, so allow me some latitude here …

We were at work and I was in a meeting in a conference room at 02:00 PM local time when it hit. At first, there was subtle sound and since it had been very windy, I looked out the window thinking there was a big gust. It was clear moments later that this was NOT wind, but something I didn’t recognize. I felt the floor shake under me – and since I was in the front of the conference room (and no surprise to some who know me - while holding the dry erase marker and scribbling on the board) I stepped into the door frame and asked “Do you guys have earthquakes, in Chengdu?” As the words are coming from my mouth, the building began to really shake. One of our local team began to really freak out and yelling “Earthquake” he sprints for the door. I am trying to maintain a calm – but quickly – retreat for the front door and nearly got stampeded by everybody else scrambling to get out. By this time, ceiling tiles are falling from the second floor roof and I got hit by one on the shoe (my personal shrapnel hit).
It was all over in one or two minutes, but everyone was really scared. Me? I was pumped. Ok, maybe stupid, too. But pumped nonetheless. I thought it very cool. It was like being on a rocking ship while on dry land. If you have never experienced this before, it gets your heart racing, but I wasn’t concerned. Amid all the people chaos around me, I was calm and smiling and as the quake subsided, I saw two of our female Associates with very scared looks on their faces, so I walked up and said “Hey, Mom, can I have some more money for another ticket, I wanna go on that ride again!” Of course, you know they thought I was nuts, but at least they laughed and relaxed a bit.
After everything settled, we counted heads, and our facility people secured the building and shutdown the boilers, air compressors, etc, etc, and eventually we decided to call it a day and sent everyone home. Cell phones are dead.
Turns out, as you know by now, that it was a 7.8 quake centered 57 miles west of Chengdu.
As we arrived at the apartment, there is a sea of people outside and we learn that the buildings are closed and until the government men inspect your building, you can’t go in. Fortunately, ours has been inspected because we get to go in. Of course the elevator is shut down, so we had to walk up 11 flights of stairs (and you know how I love that). No damage in the apartment other than a few things knocked off shelves and a few decorative crystals fallen from the chandelier. But as we go out to eat dinner (hey, we were hungry), we find that the Dancing Square has been turned into an impromptu refugee camp as it is jammed with people with some tents, blankets, etc. They are expecting a long night in the park waiting for the all clear to get in their homes.
There have been a few small aftershocks, but nothing very significant.
As I write this, there have been some reported fatalities and the airport has been closed (diverting a flight for one of our people, so who knows when he will get here), and I truly hope that there is very little damage and pray for very few fatalities. It will be several days before we really know the full impact here, but as I watch CNN, they are painting a picture of destruction that I have not seen and I have been from the northwest side of the city to the south but I cannot confirm or deny what they are reporting. I hope they are exaggerating, but time will tell.

In the end, our team is OK and I want you to rest easily knowing that. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

For “Jane in Texas” – it may have been an unusually exciting day, but I hope you and husband are coming here anyway.