Earthquake

As Carole King wrote:

I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that China was rocked by a strong earthquake (7.8 on the Richter scale) this afternoon. The center of the quake was near Chengdu in Sichuan province, which is almost a thousand miles west of Shanghai. The reports we're seeing online now are saying there are over 100 fatalities with hundreds more missing or trapped in the rubble.

Here in Shanghai, the tremor measured 5.7 and I haven't heard of any reports of damage. I was in my office on the 17th floor when it hit. I felt the building sway for several seconds and then it was over. We were told to evacuate the building so we went out and stood on the sidewalk. This brought up the question of what is better in this situation: to be in a high rise building or to be standing on the street surrounded by high rise buildings? There was really no consistency as some buildings evacuated, some didn't, and some evacuated some floors but not others. After about an hour and a half, we were allowed to enter the building to get our belongings and told to go on home. We've been here of less than a year and so far I've missed work for a "typhoon day," a "snow day," and now an "earthquake day." Hopefully this is last of the natural disasters.