October 15, 2013 Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake in Bohol

I still have tons of pending posts but the word just has to be spread.

Skip to the end for the facts. 

The first 3 paragraphs are just my account of what happened.

As I woke up at 8-something something a.m. this morning, I thought it was a perfectly beautiful day. Drowzily sitting on my bedside with my sister still sleeping soundly behind me, I thought of today's to-do list and the appointments I had to reconfirm. Then the unthinkable happened. It started out as a small tremor that lasted a few milliseconds that quickly escalated to a full on house-shaking experience. I roughly shook my sister and made sure she got to my father by the living room. I live in an old renovated commercial building on its second floor and we could feel everything. The furniture started to shake, the cabinets and its contents fell, windows and glassware broke and parts of the wall beside the staircase started falling apart!

I know we should have stayed inside, according to advisories but we didn't think the house could take any more and might cave in so we ran for it. My father is to my sister and my mother is to me. My father led the way with my sister trailing close behind him. Comically _{(but not comically at the time)}, My mother's arms wrapped her harms around me. Mostly my head and, unintentionally, face. She said it was to protect me from falling debris but all it technically did was impair my sight and made it even more difficult for me to walk _{(with the tremor there and all)}. So, in fear of tripping or unintentionally hurting her, I dropped down to the ground and did a butt-slide down the stairs. When we got down, I grabbed her and ran for the gate. We all got out safe, same with out other neighbors and the people in our neighborhood but the panic was still there.

I got to talk to our neighbor who saw our wall go down and then the employees of the shop a floor below ours _{(they said their flat screen TVs on display, among other things, were damaged)}. It was all quiet for a few minutes until we saw the people from the market and further run the opposite direction. Somebody kept saying: "Ninghunas ang dagat! Naay tsunami!". I have no idea what hunas is in english but they practically meant the people that live by the sea have noticed the shoreline receding and concluded that a tidal wave is coming. Me, internally panicking, automatically believed it and convinced the family to get in the car to go to higher ground. Of course, after a few minutes _{(and after texting with a more sensible friend)}, I realized we were an archipelago and Bohol is located smack dab in the middle of it with other islands surrounding it in all sides so a tsunami was highly unlikely. Still, strong aftershocks are being felt until now. God Bless us all.

Magnitude 7.3 felt in Carmen Bohol. The epicenter.

Magnitude 4.3 at Intensity IV felt at Tagbilaran City, Bohol 9:37 a.m. Ocober 15, 2013.

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!!

Please contact DALAREICH POLOT (09399023462)

The heartbreaking thing is the destruction of our old historical churches. Most likely the parts that got destroyed weren't part of the original structure and were renovated _{(correct me if I'm wrong)}. Hopefully the local government will repair them using the original methods and materials so they'll stand longer.