Earthquake

Feeling the earth move under our feet reminded us of how very important it is that we do our best to be prepared for emergencies and that we have to entrust our Father in heaven those matters beyond our control.

 The earthquake happened while we were at the office looking forward to lunch.  Appetites disappeared upon the realization of what was happening and our clients were the first to reach the exits.  We gathered at the parking lot and saw our neighbors along the sidewalk.  Most of the people were praying.  After the first tremor, I realized that, in my haste to get to safety, I had left my bag in the office and immediately went to retrieve the item which contained documents that, if lost, would be a very great hassle to replace.  I learned that when evacuating, the first item to take along would be the everyday personal bag that I bring along.

With no electricity to power the television and our land line phone still out-of-order, our information came from text messages.  Upon learning of the tsunami warning level 2, I knew that a tsunami was created by the earthquake,  clueless as to the gravity of a level 2 warning (later it was explained to be involving a tsunami wave less than 1 meter high). What made the warning more confusing were groups of people going to the seashore to see the tsunami. I could only shake my head and think of the phrase, “only in the Philippines”.   We also observed more people evacuating their homes to get to higher ground.  The second realization was that during an emergency we have to get our information or warning from an official source.  At 2:30 that afternoon, the tsunami warning was lifted and I shared this information with  my fellow workers who had already decided that we close shop for the day to go home early as traffic was getting heavy with schools, business and offices  closed. 

Watching the news later that day reminded us to be grateful by preparing to be of help to our fellow Negrenses were affected by the calamity.  The experience encourages us to also draw up a disaster preparedness plan for our homes, offices and businesses.  In our case, the need for an offsite back up data for information, as well as, document reconstruction was highlighted.  Now we had to deal with the reality of living along a fault line with the risk of an earthquake occurring again.

Just another attempt to smile thinking of our elderly citizens now camping out as their shelter is not considered safe with the following anecdote. A man came to visit his grandparents, and he noticed his grandfather sitting  in a rocking chair on the porch wearing only a shirt, with nothing on from the waist down. 'Lolo (Grandpa) , what are you doing? Your manhood is out in the wind for everyone to see!' he exclaimed. The old man looked off in the distance without answering.  'Lolo, what are you doing sitting out here with nothing on below the waist?' he asked again. The old man slowly looked at him and said, 'Well....last week I sat out here with no shirt on and I got a stiff neck. This is your Lola’s (Grandma's) idea.'*