Experiencing an Earthquake

​Recently, Zambales was shaken by an intensity 4 earthquake. Ideally, you're suppose to duck, cover and hold until the earthquake stops before you start walking to the nearest exit. Then again, that's not exactly what happened.

So here's the deal after experiencing it for the first time:
​

1. Feeling the Earthquake

It's not like the bell ringing and waking you from a power nap. I'm awake when it happened but I didn't feel it until I stopped from what I'm doing. You may be too busy to care or you're just tired and dizzy but it pays to stop when you feel like the letters on the monitor are moving just to check.
​

2. Ringing the Bell

Hit the damn bell! It's not gonna ring on its own because the earth is moving. I'm aware that there are assigned personnel to do that but what if they're just as busy as we are and didn't notice? Should we sound the alarm ourselves? Honestly? No.

During the drill, the bell was the earthquake and we leave the building when it stops. In actual, the bell rang a few seconds after the earthquake and walked out of the building after it stopped. Now that's confusing. ​
​

3. Taking Pictures and Sharing on Social Media

I have nothing against selfies or groufies but don't do it during the evacuation. It cause bottlenecks on exit points which may endanger your life and that of the photobomber.
​

4. Evacuation

You're already out of the building and you're suppose to fall in line with everyone else and pay attention to what may happen next.

Then again, I'm alive and so is my instructor and the building is intact. Better finish up reviewing what's on the outline.
​

5. First Aid

A lot of students collapsed due to dehydration since it happened during high noon, had panick attacks and some suddenly burst into tears due to trauma.

This is the time to apply the three day seminar on risk reduction management and firsta aid which either you're not a part of or didn't listen to.
​

6. Aftershock

Fortunately, there wasn't any so can't comment on this for now. Hopefully, never.
​

7. Reactions, effects and precautions

The earthquake I experienced isn't as severe as pointed out in the social media but a lot were brought to the hospital for having difficulty breathing and so on. Communication services were interrupted momentarily but not the Wi-Fi connection so I was able to contact my family. Classes and work were also suspended as precaution for possible aftershock.
​

The day ended just like any other day, except of course for seeing a nationwide report of the earthquake and mass post in different social media platforms.


-Aisiah Ezekyel