6.9 - Magnitude Earthquake.

" A strong earthquake struck the central Philippines on Monday, killing a child, destroying buildings, shattering windows and triggering a local tsunami alert that sent residents fleeing."

Our province was hit and truth be told, it was very strong. They even cut our classes and made us all go home.

I didn't feel it prior to my classmates' frantic shouting and frenzied scurrying to get to safety. We were in our school's basement, doing our Math project, and I was just sitting there perfectly intent on coloring the white spaces until I heard Kathleen scream for me to stop with what I was doing and duck, cover, hold. Shocked, I looked up and saw my classmates with panic-stricken looks on their faces and the realization hit me and I did what Kathleen told me to do. I went under the table with her and waited for the earthquake to stop but it seemed to go on and on.

Finally, when the ground shook no more, I went out of the table and ran to the field, since that was what everyone seemed to be doing. Once we were in the field, unsurprisingly, everyone was still in a state of shock, although there were some, like me, who were just content on exchanging stories and trying to calm other people down. Then the teachers organized for the entire high school to huddle and pray. Afterwards, they told us to go eat our lunch since they were still going to discuss on what to do.

(And then I heard that there were a couple of cracks on the walls. I guess it was that strong.)

Lunchtime started uneventful, until we were almost done with our food and the elementary kids started running out of their classrooms to the field, screaming and shouting and crying. We didn't feel it though, so we were a little bit confused and didn't know what to do, so we just stayed and finished our lunch. Afterwards, we went back to the classroom to finish our project (we were pretty chill about the whole thing). But then, they announced over the intercom that classes were going to be suspended. So I went home and thus this post.

Right now, I still feel a little dizzy and my legs seem kind of weak but I'm okay. I'm safe. I'm secure. I'm unhurt, unscathed, and even a little bit hungry. Please pray for those who weren't as fortunate as me though. I heard that there were some places who really had it hard.

This early afternoon's event was traumatizing but I'm just thankful to be alive and well.