EARTHQUAKE!

If you’re on my Facebook, you’d have read that the hotel I was staying in Cebu was rocked by an earthquake.

It happened at 830am when I was having breakfast with the rest of the conference delegates.

At first it shook. Then it continued shaking.

My first thought was, was there an MRT underground?

Nope. This is a beach resort.

Then my secondary school geography knowledge kicked in, does the Philippines suffer from earthquakes?

Not that I know of.

Nonetheless, when the shaking and rumbling didn’t stop and when I heard a cracking sound, it was time to panic. However, in a dining room with more than 80 people, it was almost like everyone was waiting for someone to say run.

All the above happened in less than 15 seconds.

Someone eventually said run.

There was a mad scramble for the exit which very fortunately was near a staircase that led to the car park on ground level. (Come to think of it, it’s an odd design for the hotel). On the way down, it was disconcerting to find shoes that have come off on the steps.

There was a quick roll call based on the different regions, as more and more people came down.

Obviously, the people who took longer to come down were higher up the building.

Someone from my office was in the lift when it happened. Lights went out and he immediately pressed all the buttons until the lift door opened.

My President was giving an interview to a reporter when the wall behind him cracked.

One of my staff already had a swollen knee before it all happened and all the running made it worst.

We were all evacuated to the poolside lawn while the firemen went to check on the building’s integrity.

It was so hot out there that I got a tan!

We were finally cleared to go back to the lobby but not the rooms at 4pm.

I was very worried about my items. I know it’s silly but I was worried about my passport and I was worried about the stuff that I bought for my mum.

I actually bought more than 10 packets of dried mangoes which I was planning to ask my Singapore colleagues to bring back to my mum. I also bought a box-full of 20 packets to bring back to Singapore.

Now, these were in jeopardy!

I wanted to go up and pack my stuff and bring them to my side.

Some of us had the same itch to do the same. We assembled a crack team to infiltrate the rooms. I said infiltrate because there were guards on the lifts.

We eventually managed to get our bags and I felt much better.

The rooms were cleared to be inhabited two hours later and we had a choice to sleep in our rooms or in the bed they set up in the ballroom. I had originally registered to sleep in my room after seeing that there wasn’t much damage inside but there were big tremors in the evening (that resulted in everyone being evacuated again) and into the night, I therefore slept in the lobby with the China team.

At least I tried to. I sat there from 11pm till 3pm. Only managed to sleep for three hours before I woke at 6am again.

If it was harrowing being in a hotel building with aftershocks, there’s even scarier being in an airport with an aftershock. There’s nowhere to run because everywhere is restricted. There was one major aftershock when we were at the waiting gate. It was 90 mins of painful waiting for take-off.

When we were finally in the air, we were all so jubilant, much like the final scene in Argo.

This is a long post and there are many details I haven’t put down.

That’s all for now.