quake update

[dichroic]

6.3 at its epicenter (offshore), and according to the radio, magnitude 3 in Taipei – USGS uses a different scale and says the main shock was intensity IV where we are. There was a later shock of magnitude 5.1 at its epicenter, but I slept through it.

No injuries or damage were reported.

I know I keep harping on the point of how kind people are here, but I have to say it again. I thought I heard my phone beep last night. This morning I found a text message from a local rowing coach, sent at 2AM just after the shock:

“Paula, do not take the lift and leave the building. Just need to open a window and go back to sleep.”

It must have woken him up too (it woke everyone!) and he thought of us and realized we might not know what to do in a bad one. (I actually was wondering, because apparently you’re not supposed to take the stairs either – those columns of concrete are vulnerable to earthquake damage. Fortunately, if ever needed we do have climbing gear in our apartment including rope and rappel equipment. I guess we could use that in an emergency!

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

Comments

[bronze_ribbons]

Glad you're safe.

It doesn't come across as harping, but then again, I'm inclined to see such glimpses as a form of bearing witness.

[jonquil]

(A) bless you and (B) what a lovely story.

[dichroic]

My husband says I must really have impressed the coach, as either extremely cute or extremely helpless. (We suspect the latter; a lot of people here appear to think that Americans are nice but just not that bright, bless 'em.

(Given that people always have to translate for us and rarely the other way around, how many basics about the culture we don't know (like the time I needed help to figure out that my hot water heater was not heating water because it needed new batteries for the pilot light) and that we are functionally illiterate (fortunately traffic signs are in English as well as Chinese) they're not actually wrong.)