Earthquake!

(Picture from Xinhua news)

Woah... freaky... I was in an earthquake and didn't even know it!

At around 2:30ish I felt quite dizzy and light-headed all of a sudden. I didn't think anything of it since I have low blood pressure and have this feeling from time to time and as long as I'm sitting down I'm OK. It only lasted a few minutes.

Not long after I went out to Carrefour to do the usual grocery shop and then I came home around 5pm. It's now 5:20pm. Strange.. the tv was on and I never even watch tv let alone leave it on when I'm out.

Hubby was home (normally doesn't get home till 6pm at least) and he asked me what I was doing before I left. I said I was sitting in front of the computer (what's new?) He said, "Did you feel swaying or dizziness?" I said, "Yes.." He said, "Me too..." and went on to tell me how he and everyone in his office felt it (at exactly the same time I felt it, and they are on the 24th floor, and I was on an even higher floor) and then they went home, since it was ... AN EARTHQUAKE!

Wha-?? I was in an earthquake and didn't even know it? hahaha that is just crazy and weird.

Well luckily noone has been hurt so far (the epicentre was near Chengdu in Sichuan province. Chengdu is the 'home' of the giant pandas, and Sichuan is where the hot, spicy food comes from, for reference ;) . It's located in the central area of China).

I checked google news and news reports are slowly to come in from around the world. Shanghaiist has a minute by minute update on the news. I hope that's the end of it and it does not have any aftershocks.. woah, how scary!

link

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan Province at 2:28pm today and the temblor was felt thousands of kilometers away in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

The strong quake rocked Wenchuan County, which is less than 100 km from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage.

The earthquake, centered 92 km northwest of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, where office buildings swayed due to the powerful earthquake.

According to a Zhejiang Province seismology monitoring station, the force of the tremor in Shanghai was equal to a magnitude 5.7 earthquake.

The Sichuan temblor caused a 3.9-magnitude earthquake in Beijing's Tongzhou District at 2:35pm, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Earthquake Administration.

Shanghai Daily reporters and other staff members were caught by surprise this afternoon when they felt their 38th floor office move on Weihai Road in Jing'An District.

"I felt dizzy for a few seconds and at first thought it was just me," said Marc Tessier, 37, a copy editor at Shanghaidaily.com. "A couple of interns then asked me if I felt the building move. It was strange and a bit scary. I never felt a building move before."

People got up from their desks and were talking excitedly, and nervously. Some colleagues even left the building, Tessier said.

The copy editor said he asked a reporter to start making some phone calls right away to find out what happened.

It was a few minutes later that our reporter learned of the earthquake in Sichuan Province.

Link

A powerful earthquake that shook southwestern China today does not appear to have caused major damage in the metropolis of Chengdu near its epicentre.

A reporter for state television news in Chengdu said people poured onto the streets following the 7.5-magnitude quake, but that public transport and electricity supplies in the city remained operational.

No one appears to have been hurt in Chengdu.
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The quake struck 93km from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province and a major population centre with more than 10m people, according to the US Geological Survey.

The quake was felt across much of China and as far southwest as Bangkok, Thailand's capital, some 3,300km away, where office buildings swayed for several minutes.

China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, as well as other high rise-buildings, were evacuated after the quake and aftershocks.

Many workers poured from their buildings in Beijing's financial centre, but there were no visible signs of damage. The subway system was unaffected.

Sources said there was no immediate impact to the Three Gorges Dam project, the weight of whose massive reservoir, hundreds of kilometres from Chengdu, experts have said could increase the risk of tremors.

In February 2003 at least 94 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a quake measuring 6.8 hit the sparsely populated Jiashi county in Xinjiang.

OK.. What do I do now? We live quite high up! Should I be scared? I have felt tremors before both in Taipei and in Sydney (when there was an earthquake in Newcastle, 2 hours north) but nothing major happened.

Another lady's personal account . It didn't even occur to me that what I felt was an earthquake and therefore it didn't occur to me I should take the stairs but there's no way I would've lasted esp. given I'm asthmatic. Once I walked from the ground floor to the 17th floor and nearly passed out. Oh it's shocking how unfit I am.