Eli Sweet '05, currently a student at SiChuan University, reports from the scene of China's devastating earthquake.
Editor's Note: Eli Sweet '05 is a student at SiChuan University. This is his account of Monday's earthquake which has killed thousands.
I had just left my 35-story apartment building Monday afternoon at 2:45 when I saw a crowd of people running frantically down an alleyway toward me. I was sauntering along to some bass-heavy hip-hop music at the time, and didn't realize that the ground was shaking until I saw the throng of people running. Comical though it seems, my first thought was that the crowd was running towards something, like the ice cream truck, or maybe a truck distributing something valuable on a first-come first-served basis.
As the tremor intensified I realized that it was an earthquake, and I turned back to look at my apartment, which was swaying dramatically. The apartment is actually two buildings that rest flush against each other and they were separating and banging into each other at the seam. Plaster dust was billowing and people were screaming. The ground was vibrating for about 90 seconds, and the sensation was somewhat like being in an inflatable "moonwalk" with kids bouncing around you. After the ground stopped shaking, catching a cab was out of the question, so I walked to meet a couple of people I was planning to see. For the rest of the afternoon, no one was allowed back inside any buildings, for fear of aftershocks, and subsequently, the streets of ChengDu were packed with people. Although some people were clearly unnerved by the event, the overall atmosphere on the street was very orderly. People filled up parks, laid out newspapers on the ground, and played cards. Traffic police directed cars on busy corners. Security guards stood at apartment gates to keep people from reentering. Recyclers walked through the crowds of people collecting empty bottles. Although power went out in some places, it remained on throughout most of ChengDu (as did water), and the damage to buildings seemed mostly cosmetic. Having in the past poked fun at high-speed Chinese construction for being poor quality, I must profess a newfound confidence. No buildings collapsed in ChengDu, which is a reassuring fact. In the future, I will save my jests - good enough to withstand a 7.9 earthquake is good enough for me! Of course one of the reasons that no buildings collapsed in ChengDu is that it is an extremely flat city, so the building foundations here have more stability than those built in the mountains around the city. The bad luck of people to the north of ChengDu is compounded by the lower building standards in rural areas as well as their proximity to the epicenter.
Since I couldn't get back into my house, I walked to SiChuan University campus, where I go to school. I found a group of foreign classmates congregated on the soccer field among hundreds of other students and faculty. Some people brought tents, and most others had blankets or bamboo mats to sit on. Most people were resolved to the notion of sleeping outside, and luckily it was a warm night. The stadium lights at the soccer field were turned on, and people mingled about during the evening relating information (mostly about when the next aftershocks were predicted) and trying to use their cell phones with little success. Some people crowded around laptops, watching movies or looking for news online. I was impressed that most of the information that I heard about predicted aftershocks turned out to be accurate. The most notable aftershocks came at 7 in the evening, 12 midnight, 5 in the morning, and about thirty seconds ago when the internet cafe where I am sitting began to shake lightly and was frantically abandoned by its customers (me included) in a matter of seconds. None of the aftershocks have had nearly the power nor the duration of the initial quake however, and it seems likely that the threat has passed.
After spending the night on the soccer field, it began to rain at 5 am, and I went back to my apartment, which was by that time open. I slept a few hours, but was woken up this morning by security guards who were emptying the building in anticipation of a predicted aftershock the afternoon - presumably the one I just felt. I think that I will be able to get back into my apartment this afternoon but this time when I left I packed a toothbrush, a change of socks and ample reading material, just in case.
