Like many people around the domain , my cerebration have been centered on the citizens of Haiti this past hebdomad : mourn the staggering red ink of lifetime in a poor - than - poor commonwealth whose people have so little , and have now lost their family and friends , too .
Hoping the survivors will get the solid food , pee , and medical upkeep they so urgently require .
Wishing I could do more to aid , and feeling helpless because devastating earthquakes , like so many other instinctive disasters , are out of our ascendence . They just happen , ready or not .
This sunrise , understand the latest news about this tragedy , I found myself flashing back to one of the largest quake to occur here in Washington in record story : the 6.8 Nisqually Quake in February 2001 .
Compared to Haiti ’s earthquake , ours was nothing — it cause amazingly picayune structural damage to edifice and only one casualty . Still , it outrank as one of the most fearful incident of my life history , one that shake my natural disaster - happen - everywhere - but - here self-complacency .
The rumbling started as I set to walk out of my girl ’s third - class classroom at our old rural elementary school , where I volunteered . Her teacher and I commute looks , both of us think the same thing : that Fort Lewis ( our local military groundwork ) must be bombing material again .
But instead of languish away , the rumbling grew louder . The room started to tremble , and the truth sank in a few heartbeats later . “ seism ! Get under your desks ! ” we yelled in unison . Thanks to their earthquake drills , the kids promptly obeyed , and we dove under nearby tables ourselves .
The next 45 seconds stretched like taffy as the world shake and my table bounced so hard I had to grab a stage to keep it from jumping aside . The teacher and I kept calling “ It ’s fine ! Stay put ! ” while my frightened gaze remain paste on my daughter , cower under her desk across the elbow room . Beyond Kelsey , the old cinderblock wall shuddered , but view as it together .
When the earth foreswear panting , we hugged and laughed with wobbly substitute , then file away out , bray across low field glass to await the white-hot - faced parent flocking to the school day .
Kelsey and I hurried back to our farm to find our home and outbuildings still stand , the fauna whole . The only grounds of the temblor : a single photograph lie on its side . What would we have done , I wondered , if our abode had collapsed ?
A few months later , I put together our first disaster emergency kit . Controlling earthquakes was out , of course of action , but I could control whether our crime syndicate and animals would have food for thought , pee , and other essentials during the consequence . If you still need to make disaster preparations , check out this with child clause onFarm Disaster Plansby Carol Ekarius .
~ Cherie
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