0 Earthquakes here and there

I can never explain what I felt during the time they showed the videos of the destructive tsunami that hit Japan last March 11. I was speechless, and terrified. If you have watched the videos, then you'll probably feel the same way.

And today, I was again enveloped with the same fear, hearing the news that there was an earthquake near my hometown. I actually read about it in the news, but no one from my family informed me about it. So I contacted them, asking how they were doing. Good thing the earthquake was not as strong as Japan's, but equally nerve-racking. I suddenly remembered the near-tsunami experience that we went through on the 1994 earthquake.

I can still vividly recall what happened that night. I was already on bed early because there was a school the next day. The dogs suddenly barking wildly, but not the same bark when someone was at the gate of the house. You can distinguish the uneasiness in the dogs' voice, much like calling for help. Then suddenly the ground started swaying. I quickly sat up, waiting for the tremor to finish before standing up. I was very afraid. The dogs never stopped barking. After a few minutes, a loud, roaring sound started to play in our ears. I distinctly remember the sound of small rocks being pulled into the sea by the retreating waves. At first we thought, why there was a truck driving at a time like this? I also thought there will be a train which will pass by(although there were no train tracks). We never thought that a tsunami was just seconds away from announcing itself in our shoreline. We even looked outside the window and look if a vehicle would pass by, but none did.

We only knew the next day that a tsunami almost hit our homes. I was walking to school, I remember seeing people at the shore picking some fish that were washed ashore. The big rocks that are normally green is now whitish, most of them turned upside down by the force of the retreating waves. Some of my classmates are even absent from school, spent the day picking up sea creatures.

We only knew the next day that the roaring sound we heard last night was the sea, retreating and getting itself ready for a big wall of watery destruction. But we thank the Good Lord, for a miracle has happened that night. We were saved from a disaster, the waters have retreated back, but it never came back rushing violently.