Mindanao and Visayas experienced a series of earthquakes early this December.
Nobody on my team said anything to me about it and it appears it didn’t cause a lot of damage or affect a lot of people so I didn’t send an email about it.
But then, in the course of sending the 13th month and end of year bonuses, we found out it actually had affected several people.
One of my team members has cracks all over their kitchen that they’re worried will eventually cause the kitchen to completely fall in:
The bonus we sent will help them rebuild.
I had Julia write about the earthquake since they experienced it firsthand.
The earthquakes in Mindanao are not unusual. We get earthquakes like that at least once a month (magnitude 3-5). We’re pretty used to it. But what was unusual about this latest series of earthquakes was the frequency and the size of the areas affected.
Most of the time, it’s pretty localized. The epicenter would experience the worst of it, and the nearby regions would get a milder version. The aftershocks would last maybe a day, a week at most.
This last earthquake was a bit stronger than normal and affected a really large area. The epicenter for the last earthquake is located in Northern Mindanao, but it was felt by most of Mindanao and even reached the Visayas.
And as of writing, we’re still experiencing aftershocks. They’re weakening, but we did feel it for days. Some may not even be aftershocks but paranoia. In several instances, my husband and I thought there was another earthquake, but it was just unstable chairs or swinging pull switch chains.
I know the recent earthquakes sound scary when you read about them in the news. A condominium complex in our city was even told by city building inspectors to move their unit owners and tenants because one of their buildings was unsafe.
Having lived with earthquakes all my life, I’m not that worried about it because we have found ways to adapt and cope.
The best example I have for this is to share what I was doing during the earthquake a few weeks back: walking around the mall with my family and looking for a place to have dinner.
Translation: Just had an earthquake!
Yes, we took a selfie just after the earthquake.
We were on the 3rd floor. When we felt the building shake, we (and the other people there) calmly walked toward one of the major support columns, knowing it was one of the strongest places in the building. The shop owners automatically evacuated their stores and closed them. The building security evacuated the elevators, stairs, and escalators and moved people to the safe areas.
Once the earthquake stopped, we all walked out of the building to the designated evacuation areas. Safety engineers were at the scene in a few minutes. No one was injured, but an ambulance was called for a lady who had a panic attack. We waited in the designated area for an hour until we were told we could return. They reopened the mall, and we had dinner.
Every aftershock since our city government would send safety alerts, reminders, and safety engineers within minutes.
The worst we experienced was losing electricity in the middle of the night. But that was reported and fixed in a few hours.
There was also an earthquake in Luzon, but it wasn’t as strong as the one we had here. They’re also fine.
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Earthquakes are normal for them. I had no idea.
John