And the earth shook
When I knew I was coming to the Philippines, I checked the USGS stats relating to earthquakes. I have no idea why, but I had a gut feeling that I would feel a quake. I checked the best advice I could find to confirm that the plans in my head were the best possible plans.
A friend of mine was managing Asia’s biggest gaming, entertainment and tourism convention. I offered my help and ended up being a technical assistant.
Today as we were at the convention, I went for a smoke with my friends at around 1.30pm local time.
I was stood in the loading bay and the shutters started making a hell of a noise, as if many people were throwing themselves against it from the inside. I could not hear any footsteps and assumed it was the wind, but as I looked around I realised that the other shutters were not doing the same.
I didn’t want to say anything, but I then felt the ground beneath my feet being lightly pulled and pushed.
At this point, ian pointed to Tam’s drink which was on top of the bin and was shaking. “Earthquake” said Tam.
I immediately knew we should get out from the loading bay as most of the building was above us on pillars. “Shouldn’t we get out into the road” I asked, “I don’t like the idea of the building above us during an earthquake”. Everyone grabbed their bags and we headed to the roadside just to be safe.
The quake only lasted a few seconds, but we stayed on the road waiting for aftershocks. After a few minutes it was clear that there was not going to be any aftershocks and we headed back inside.
Everyone started talking about how it was a strong quake, but I thought it was fairly weak. Checking online, we saw it was a 6.2, later it was confirmed as a 6.0 located 80 miles away from us. Everyone seemed shocked. Just a few days earlier I had asked “how frequent do you get quakes” and the reply was “very rarely, maybe one weak one per year”.
I joked that the ferocity of sex Ian and myself had been having must have loosened the tectonic plate lol.
There was no visible damage due to the quake. I was in Manila, right next to the sea and kept an eye out for changing tides which would have been the first sign of a tsunami, but it never changed.