By now some of you might have heard about or even experienced the two tremors this afternoon. It's something I sure as hell won't forget anytime soon.
I was in the office when the first one hit close to noon. My colleague turned to me and said "FUCK!". I went "Huh? What happened?". Then I immediately felt it. No, not the building shaking but a wave of nausea. Giddy-like. Followed by a slight tremor, the room moving just a little. We immediately stepped out of the room and we saw everyone else, out of their rooms or cubicles, all anxious and worried. You know, I never knew the first thing to hit me would be the nausea, apparently everyone felt the same way, always thought it would be like the room or floor shaking or something. So we were all going, "Did you felt that?" "The building was shaking." "Leave the building now." "Take the stairs."
Oh yes we did, all 32 floors of it...
Once outside the building, I called my folks who turned on the TV and updated me on what happened. Earthquake in Sumatra, lots of other buildings here felt it. I think the official number is about 200 buildings here.
Well, we had lunch and about 1.30pm, most of us were already making our way back into the building. I was back at about a quarter to 2. Then it happened again.
I turned to a different colleague. I looked at her and she went "What?". I kept quiet cos I thought it night had been my imagination. Then came a stronger tremor. "Shit, not again!"
But this time we were all too tired to walk the stairs. The lift opened, some other colleagues were about to step out. We pushed them back it. And down we went.
All the sideway cafes, coffee shops around the area were filled with people from all the neighbouring office blocks. When I heard my other colleague had walked all the way down twice, I looked at him and said, "thighs of steel. man".
We all returned about 3pm cos the boss sent an SMS telling us to head back or else! Word came later that both quakes, about 2 hours apart were each 6.6 on the Richter Scale.
By the way, taking a page out of my current fav sitcom Two and a Half Men, decided to name each entry using a line from each post, kinda like how each episode of the show comes with a really weird title taken from the script (when it's read out of context), know what I mean?
8 comments:
The first and only time I recall feeling an earthquake was when I was in Peru on my honeymoon back in 1996.
I felt the street rumbling, like a big truck was coming down it. I saw people suddenly drop everything and run away. I saw a church steeple swaying and my wife pulling me at the arm to move it. I looked down the street and didn’t see a truck coming (it was a narrow street, so I thought people were just moving out of the way). After it stopped and everyone calmed down it finally dawned on me that it had been a mild earthquake or tremor.
Pretty cool, I thought. Mind you, I am way to oblivious most times for my own good.
In ancient Peru, the ancient Incas used to construct their building with walls sloping inward at 7 degrees to provide resistance against earthquakes.
I don't know the show, but I like to try and come up with clever titles too.
oh dear it's so scary..... i hope everything had been fine. Singapore'd better have really sturdy buildings....or the catastrophy of it all...alas!
richard: yah, i guess feeling the earth move under u is something u won't forget.
serendipity: well, luckily no damage here.
Our office was on the sixth floor but unbelievably, most of my colleagues didn't feel it even if it was so strong that I felt nauseated as well.
coffee fairy: yah, think i know how u felt.
6.6 Richter Scale!?
oh god! im sorry it must have been really scary :O
we are used to quake and dont go outa room when it jolted.
falling objects are quite dangerous.
and we had better not take a lift.
ppl were stuck up in 60 lifts, last year when 5.8 richter scale hit tokyo.
im glad u were safe, cava-chan!!
take care! :)
niki: i'm fine! thanks!
Being on the 32nd floor is beyond inconvenient during an earthquake. Scary. I'm glad you are okay. Nice boss you have too, threatening you to return to work!
I've been in a couple of minor earthquakes. I can relate to that feeling of nausea too. I felt that way during one of the earthquakes and actually blacked out as I was standing in the doorway!
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