It was the night of Christmas 2004, when my parents and I were at the Peerless resort Christmas party, on their private beach, in Andaman. We all had sunk into the beauty of the beach and the beautiful atmosphere around us. But nobody could foretell the events that were to unfold. We decided to depart early as we had a boat to catch next morning which would take us to Ross Island to see remains of a British built watch tower and power house. Christmas had been spent beautifully this year and half the holiday was still to come!
Next morning I woke up to, who I thought were a hundred men hammering my door, which actually was the twin building hammering itself against its twin! Earthquake had struck! The fan was swinging like a pendulum and before I could notice more my father grabbed my hand and ran down the stairs with me, which would be considered nothing less than a roller coaster ride. As we ran out of the sabotaged hotel, ceramic tiles continued to crack and fall from the top floor. We ran out to join the panicked crowd. Busses were making way through the congested road screaming in their local language-“water is coming, run!” all electric poles had crashed and the phone signals read blank. Over the last five minutes my parents and I were still star struck with one question in our minds, “what just happened?”
After the major tremors stopped, the hotel staff gathered all their guests and led us to an open field, which was considered a rather safer area. Rumours spread that a tsunami had hit and it was coming towards us, but the hotel staff assured us that we were in a higher land and a few kilometres away from shore. We took a sigh of relief but were still not sure as rumours flew in from all directions. By afternoon we were g...
... middle of paper ...
...We literally had to walk to our Air India flight. Kids were sitting on parents laps to make space for extra passengers. You could see the foot wide crack on the airport, which was a challenge for pilots to counter.
We took off at five past eleven sharp, and that’s when I realised how lucky this escape had been. The whole bird’s eye view of the Andaman had changed. You could clearly understand wide streams of black water having flown in into the mainland. Before I could realise further I fell asleep on my father’s lap. As we landed in Calcutta airport, we were hurdled by news reporters. We dodged it and made way to find my grandfather who had come to pick us up. I could see tears rolling down both my parents’ eyes as they hugged me tight. That day I didn’t understand the tears, but today when I look back at that terrifying situation, I understand every bit of it.
When one of the worst earthquakes ever hits the town of San Francisco panic ensues, but not for everyone. On April 18, 1906, at 5:15 am the city of San Francisco was demolished by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which also led to many fires being started. There was $350m in estimated damages, and 400-750 people perished in the earthquake and fire. Around 490 city blocks were destroyed, causing 250,000 people to become homeless (A Brief Account, SF Tourism Tips). In the aftermath of the earthquake there were many eyewitness accounts written about it. The eyewitness account, “Comprehending the Calamity,” by Emma Burke and the eyewitness account,"Horrific Wreck of the City" by Fred Hewitt both describe the same event, but they both have very different
When we finally did arrive to the port where we would board the ferry, my sister, my grandmother, my mom and I stepped out of the car into the windy May air. Immediately my mother’s eyes lit up, as well as my grandmother’s. My little 5-year old sister and I stood there, slightly confused until we finally noticed a giant man approach our family. He towered over everyone at an unimaginable 6’4”. His dark brown hair was cut short, almost like a buzz cut but not quite. I did not know who this man was. Next to him stood a much shorter Asian woman and she was beautiful. I still did not understand yet who they were.
A powerful earthquake tore through the city. Takayuki was violently thrown against the walls of the elevator, eventually resting l...
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
Different cultures and religions have many different customs and rituals. In Islam it is common practice for women to be covered from head to toe. In Tibetan Buddhism it is common for devotees to practice asceticism. In Hopi culture and religious tradition food and sex play large and important roles, although in different situations the roles may be completely opposite.
Ten million California residents who lived closely from the major fault lines could have been endangered in many extreme ways. (House, 56). A tragic thing was that after the earthquake a multitudes of fire followed right after. The situation led to the water mains being destroyed and the firefighter being left with no water to settle the growing fire which continued blazing. The bay water was planned on putting all of the dure out but it was to far in distance to be able to transport it (Earthquake of 1906, 2). The firefighters who were putting out the fire were either surrounded or being burned by the fire that was blazing in all directions (San Francisco Earthquake, 2). A resident who was present during the event mention that he/she saw men and women standing in a corner of a building praying, one person who became delirious by the horrific ways that were surrounding him while crying and screaming at the top of his lungs “the Lord sent it, the Lord”. Someone also mentioned that they experience themselves seeing Stones fall from the sky and crushing people to death. Reporters say there were 100 cannons going off (San Francisco Earthquake, 3). People who lived fifty miles away from the fire was able to “read the newspaper at
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people from diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were going back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 consisted not only of earthquakes, but also of even more destructive fires; it had a scarring effect on the city and its people, yet it gave much of the knowledge that seismologists have today and allowed San Francisco to stand as a place of intriguing buildings and structures.
During the earthquake, the people of the entire island felt the shaking of earth beneath them and the building for a few minutes. In Nanto, the area of the epicenter, almost all of the buildings collapsed. In Taichung, a close metropolis, many buildings collapsed or bent. For the rest of the night, all the people in Taiwan were in the terror from numerous aftershocks. According to one citizen`s description, although the building she lived in was not damaged, her family slept in their car all night for fear that their home would collapse in the next aftershock.
Boom! Crash! Sound echo everywhere. People scream all around you. A deadly 7.1 magnitude earthquake has just hit your town. On October 14, 2013 this happened in the Philippines (B-Essay). There were 3,512,281 affected individuals and 36,645 houses damaged (Doc. D). 39 roads and 18 bridges were in disrepair (Doc. D). People respond in certain ways after a natural disaster. They band together and react with Red Cross and government, Evacuation centers, and Gathering supplies.
"The Great Quake: 1906-2006 / Rising from the Ashes." SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
Our Sun continuously converts hydrogen into helium and with this process it provides the essentials for life processes. In doing this it controls “our climate, provides light, raises tides, and drives the food chain” (Schaefer 34). Our Sun also has influenced many beliefs now and in the past. History has documented Sun worshipping religions while many current societies use solar calendars (Schaefer 34).
My day was going well. I devoured a big breakfast, my brother, for once, got out of the shower quick, and no major assignment was pending. Life was very, very good. Then life began to fall into oblivion. I saw on the board in the front of Mrs. Smith's room the journal entry for the day. It was about what would I write about in a narrative essay. Hope faded away. Somewhere on the planet a nuclear bomb went. An earthquake struck in some unknown place on the Earth. A volcano erupted on Jupiter's moon Io and killed a bunch of Ionians. Somebody's red rose just wilted and the petals fell onto the ground. The end of the world was indeed upon us. My jaw dropped and warning bells went off in my head. I went completely and utterly blank. I tried as hard as I could to write my journal. Channel One came on and talked about a nuclear bomb going off in India that caused an earthquake that somehow caused a volcano to erupt on Io (that killed a bunch of aliens). My jaw dropped once again. It was now the floor. As I was finishing my journal, Mrs. Smith went to the front of the room and talked about, du du du, narrative papers. She gave us a cold, white study guide that gave me no hope for survival. She then gave us another evil sheet of pap...
The faded voices of choir singers are muffled by a roaring explosion. The sounds from the crumbling building spread down the block. Worn-down bricks, knocked out from underneath each another. Shards of colored glass, shot into the air. Chucks of wood and rubbish litter the sidewalk. Thick smoke and fearful screams saturate the air. A mother’s worse nightmare.
To go to war is to engage in a fight with another Nation. Many view war as being an appropriate action that can only solve problems. Others believe that war is a violent action that leads to nothing but casualties. In the article, “Regarding the Torture of Others” Susan Sontag writes about the torture soldiers are inflicting on prisoners. Some torture was done so brutally that the some of the soldiers deem that acts as correct and in the process seem to try to dehumanize the victims. The bush administration considered torture as being mistreatment not evil. The Blog “Military Blog” by Zachary Scott-Singley deals with the day by day life and thoughts of a solider at war. Zachary Scott-Singley is a soldier struggling with the wrong of his actions. At one point, he believes that the killing of Iraqis is okay, but he then believes it is not. He was torn between he believes is right and not. The story “Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche is a story about a young girl and her families struggles during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960’s. Her family has pride like much of the people of Biafra. That all changed when her younger brother Obi died, and the family realizes at that point the war was lost. While Sontag still maintained that war was not bad, she still believed that it was the torture of others that made war such a brutal action. On the other hand, Zachery from military blog was lost trying to find out if War was correct or not. The characters from “Half of a Yellow Sun” share a belief that war is necessary to defend their nations honor and pride but as the war progresses and it began to affect them they begin to see that the war was not as productive as they hoped it would be. Looking at pictures of war is like l...
Thousands of people have experienced an earthquake at one point in their life. An earthquake can be a type of stressor. This type of stressor is called a cataclysmic event. These events are “strong stressors that occur suddenly and typically affect many people simultaneously” (Feldman, 2010). Though some might think all kinds of stress lingers, but in these cases they usually don’t. In most cases it causes relief because people would believe that the worst has already happened and so they go on with their day with possibly even less stress. For example if I so happened to be shopping at the mall while my mom was at work and suddenly I felt a strong earthquake, I would begin to stress about the fact that my mom works in a large building nearby. Then I would do anything I can to get in contact with her to find out if she is well and unharmed. Then I would feel relieved to know that she is fine.