The Earthquake

Part 2: The Destruction

   It had taken hours for the police and rescuer's to get into our building. There were so many calls and so many ambulances needed in other places trying to help other victims of the earthquake that it had been hard for them to get any rescue squads over to our school.

   Not only were the police low on ambulances and rescue workers, but our entire school had been destroyed. An earthquake that had only lasted for about 20-30 seconds, had caused this much damage.

   The demolished buildings were all around us. I had learned that not only had the ceiling collapsed in my classroom and lost others, but children had fell through the floor as the ceiling burst. Children had died and some were rushed to the overflowing hospitals with injuries that could turn out fatal.

   I had an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach that nothing was ever going to be the same ever again.

   I couldn't imagine how my parents were feeling in that moment. I didn't even know if they were alive and that was the thought I insisted on not thinking about.

   They had to be okay, they just had to.

   Our school hallways had been filled with so much debris from falling ceilings that it had been hard to see as we walked out of the school. Not to mention hard to breathe. I found myself having coughing fits and having to stop walking in order to catch my breath.

   So here I sat, on an ambulance car as the paramedics checked my vitals to make sure everything was okay with me. And I was. I was one of the lucky ones.

   "Form a line children." My teacher, Ms. Helen, had said as she took us and made sure we were in a group and not separated.

   All around me I could hear the crying from hysterical parents looking for their children that may or may not have made it out and from the children that did not know where their parents were as well.

   "We have to stay together." Ms. Helen kept repeating over and over again. She looked very frazzled, unlike her usual put together self and I couldn't blame her either. I'm sure I looked exactly as I felt; Exhausted and shocked.

   "Ms. Helen, do you think my mama is going to come looking for me?" Janice, one of my fellow classmates, asked with tear stained cheeks.

   Ms. Helen hugged Janice close to her and I could see the glassiness of tears start to pool at her eyes, "Of course sweetie, of course she's going to come looking for you. I'm sure she's just stuck in traffic."

   But of course for many others that day, their parents would not come looking for them.