A Strong Earthquake

This morning while cooking our breakfast, I felt something shaking. Good thing I exactly finish what I'm doing. My wife is on a video call with her sister. I was thinking it might be earthquake. I may be disoriented or just complacent. I observed everything that's moving. My brother went outside the house. My wife also went out, and I followed but I returned inside the house. I felt like I'm out of my mind.

The center of the earthquake is probably in the province of Abra or Ilocos Sur which the magnitude is around 7.1 to 7.3. Here in Pangasinan, it is probably around 6.5 to 6.9. Large parts of Luzon has felt the shaking even around Magnitude 4 in the NCR.

Pictures of damages in northern Luzon are already surfacing the social media. For me, it is the strongest earthquake I had experienced since the one from 1990.

The earthquake in 1990 is the strongest one that I had witnessed. It was above Magnitude 7.5, and the shaking has been longer. That shaking has destroyed large part of Luzon, including our province. I remember walking in cracked roads then. There are strong after shocks too.

My mother told us that she was very tired from running and sat in a place, and when she stood up, debris fell and she was saved. My father saw many people running. Grounds turned muddy. It is really a scary and traumatic experience for them.

I am still young at that time. The earthquake didn't scare that much because of my ignorance. However, I felt the hardships of its aftermath. No electricity for long periods. No water as well, and we all need to fetch from deep wells of our neighbors. My parents are unable to work for weeks.

Restoration of electricity and water service took several months. In fact, in some places in Dagupan City, there are remains and traces of the earthquake. I remember that earthquake happened on July 16, 1990. That's the same month as today.

Years after the 1990 quake, I experienced some slightly strong ones. At times, it disturbs my sleep. Yes, it is scary because I am aware of its possible aftermath. Everytime I see places where earthquake happened, I get very scared and sad to the people being affected.

For now, we are encouraging and telling everyone to remain vigilant because of possible after shocks. In coastal areas, people are told to evacuate because of possible tsunami. There are ways what we can do to save ourselves, one way is not to panic. May everyone be safe, and alert as earthquakes happen without a warning.