Tsunamipocalypse

February 6, 2012 - A strong magnitude 6.7 earthquake was felt in Cebu City. That's the news headline. Let me take you to that particular moment from my own eyes.

So its near 12 noon, I am preparing to leave the office because I have to attend a kiddie birthday party of my friend's son and Im bringing my 2 yr old niece. I have to go home and fetch my niece, the party starts at 2pm in SM. At work I was just uploading the lane images to the ftp server when.

I felt my table shook. At first I just disregarded it as "ok an earthquake, it happens". Then the scariest 16secs of my life, the whole office just shook, the ceiling, the floor, my desk, everything. It is moments like this that the reality dawns on you that you are this tiny speck that is so fragile. My knees shook violently and as people around me realized that this is not just one of those shakers, we were all lead tothe exit.

In those 16 seconds the lights went out, and the alarm sounded. You just want to get out from inside the building quick. Knowing the facts that our floor has many cracks because of the heavy lane equipments - it is a scary thought that it may just collapse - didn't help my imagination.

Thankfully, nothing catastrophic happened. We were all safely lead to the open grounds - practice do makes perfect because our building has this twice a year fire/earthquake drill.

It was around 1pm that I got out of the office. Im running late for my 2pm kiddie party and when I went home, I quickly got my niece and rode a taxi. The streets are becoming congested because of some work and schools are suspended. We were nearing SM, just within the vicinity of Mabolo church when the cinematic happened.

People are running, frantically. Their faces are scared as if there is something that will swallow them alive. I was to get out of the taxi, because admittedly some fear in my system creeped. The taxi driver told me to ask first what happened. I called someone but nobody is answering my queries, so the driver said that it is a tsunami scare. And who wouldn't be afraid, SM sits on reclamed land and just a few kilometers away is the pier. The taxi driver pointed out to me that looking at the road ahead, there are still vehicles running so we went straight to SM.

Upon arriving, I saw many people outside of SM. I thought if the tsunami will indeed come, it is better to be inside than outside. I went inside and lo and behold, shops are closed and the people who are inside are either crying, calling, hysterical. The only people who are in their presence of mind are the guards who inspects the stalls and the mall's vicinity and the entry gates. Jolibee's door is half closed and nobody is celebrating a birthday as I observed from the outside.

I was looking at the road and looking for signs that the sea had overflown but none. I decided to just walk to IT park where Im sure there is food as Im hungry and the stalls in SM are closed. I walked carrying a 2 yr old weighing 10kilos at a distance of approx 5km. My sweat fell like rain that time. While I was walking, thousands are also walking towards highland, and the roads are all packed. There are trucks,vans, cars full of people with their bag of clothes. They are barely moving because of the heavy traffic. If the tsunami indeed happened, those stuck in traffic will die first because they cant escape from their vehicles that easily.

It was an excruciating walk. I did ask if this was all real. Is this really happening? I realized it is real and it is happening!

I arrived in IT park, exhausted and hungry. My niece is hungry too. She ate like one order of french fries all by herself. I was busy updating facebook and twitter. After eating, another short walk from IT park to JY, thankfully we rode a jeep and back to home. We arrived safely.

Moments after, an aftershock shook our house, and another one after a few hours. Today is the day that Cebu shook its bonbon.