The Earthquake Strikes

One day, as I was in my room, doing my homework assignments as usual, I felt the floor beneath me wobble. I went outside, and saw the entire house moving, but not by much. I held onto a fence to keep my balance as I watched the earthquake unfold. This one was weak; it was not nearly enough to destroy my house with that solid foundation. I knew that another earthquake would sweep across the neighborhood eventually though.

Two years later, as I was at the bus stop waiting for the school bus to pick me up and drop me off at the school, I felt the ground shaking, but it was much more intense this time. I realized that the bus stop might collapse and ran away. I checked my watch and found out that it was 8:30 am, while the bus would arrive at the bus stop at 8:25 the latest. I ran to school even though I knew that it was likely that school would be dismissed until after the earthquake. There I was, watching the scene play out.

The playgrounds in which children would play for a few minutes before class was in disarray. People were bumping into each other as they tried to get away from the school building. I felt lucky that I was late to school. Students from higher grades came pouring out of the school doors. Once everybody was away from all major buildings, we tried to take cover in the local parks, which were not surrounded by large structures. The trees were solid, so they only swayed from side to side by a bit. We sat in the shade of the trees, waiting for the earthquake to end.

After two hours of being cramped under an oak tree, I felt relieved that I could leave safely. We headed toward school hoping that the building was not destroyed. Although the it was not damaged on the outside thanks to robust aluminum beams keeping it stable, the classrooms were totally messed up. Blackboards were ripped off the walls and thrown onto the ground. Desks and chairs were smashed into pieces and littered the floor. We knew that it would be days, maybe weeks, before we would have classes in that school.