April Fool's Earthquake

Lots of news to catch up with, but first this -

We were out playing soccer, with the team of kids from McKinley's new school (news) against a team of adults. It gave the kids great competitive skills, but if they got past the expert guys to actually take a shot at the goal, I (Alison), in my great wisdom and compassion, usually let the ball go through. .^_^.

This was at the city stadium, a huge arena for soccer and track and field events, with the entrance cover a long metal roof over concrete supports.

Suddenly, just after dusk, the floodlights flickered and the metal roof made a pounding, crackling sound. The ground jolted and rippled. My first instinct was to get to McKinley and hold her. It felt exactly like ten years ago, when we were in Japan, and thousands of people were killed in Kobe. The coaches shouted to me, "Stand still!" but I had to hold McKinley. Then I stood still.

I don't understand the nature of time, but something like this, when the earth you trust starts to swerve beneath your feet, and adrenalin shoots through your veins, time is so slow. It was 30 seconds? A minute? It was far too long to have McKinley 50 yards away from me!

It turns out that we were at the epicenter, right here in Taitung, and it was 6.4, with four aftershocks. It didn't cause much damage - shelves in stores with goods piled up, spilled to the floor; there were some fires and a few injuries - but nothing like the experience in Japan.

I look back and wonder how we knew - because we did know - how very very bad that was. Immediately after that earthquake, we called home to Joplin's parents and said to them, "We don't know what's happened, but it's bad. There's been an earthquake, and we're okay." Five minutes later, the phones were out, for the rest of the week, and daily the body count grew.

This time, we stopped, listened to the metal roof clatter, watched the carefully designed concrete supports flex and hold. Then when the earth settled down, someone blew the whistle, and the ball was in play.