Caroline's+Story


 * My friend Sarah, and I were on a vacation together on the coast of California. We were staying in a hotel that was a couple blocks over from the beach we were on the 1st floor. It was Saturday July 25th 2011 when we were awoken from our sleep at 7:11AM by seismic waves. The P Waves came first they startled us and the building began to shake. I was still half awake and at first i didn't exactly know what happend! Then I realized that I was in the middle of a earthquake! A few seconds later the S waves arrived and everything on the walls fell of and shattered, and the the power went out. A few seconds after that the Surface waves came and are roof begin to crumble and look like it may collapse. We were screaming so loudly. I was in complete terror. We ran into the hall and the vending machines fell over. People were trapped under things that fell! I got tripped by a beam that fell from the ceiling and rolled my ankle. This is a video that was taken at the same time in a nearby office: **

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 * The shaking stopped and we sprinted outside because people were hollering to get out because the hotel could fall over at any minute. Just as we got outside and started talking to people,huge wave called a Tsunami came in and started to flood the streets. We ran as fast as we could into a more sturdy base-isolated building around 3 blocks away. The streets were covered in only about 1 foot of water, but people could still drown. We quickly tried to help by pulling people out of the rubble. We all had to help the people that were knocked out or seriously injured get inside the building so they could get medical attention and not drown in the flood. The water was not clean water like a stream, but murky and dirty with cans and trash from the streets just floating on the top. People were yelling for help and we rushed them back to the base-isolated building were medically trained people could help people. Here is a video of the tsunami from a small nearby beach: **

** A few hours later a less powerful aftershock happened. Everything shook all over again but not as bad as before no one was injured by the after shock.Later that day we went outside and we saw how much damage took place. Trees and power lines were down, bridges had fallen, a bunch of buildings were damaged or ruined, cars were turned over, sidewalks were cracked, streets were still partly flooded in some areas, and people were crying and praying all around. It was devastating to see a beautiful area completley in ruins. **






 * Sarah and me went back to the hotel later the nextday to retrieve our stuff, but sadly hotel had collapsed, and was pretty much ruined. We went back to the base isolated building andwe found out that the airports would re open in 4 days. Sarah and I both called home and fortunately we both got to talk too our parents. were very relived that we were safe becausethey heard about the earthquake on the news. They said they would arrange a flight home for us as soon as the airports were safe enough. One the left there is a picture of our hotel that colapsed. **

** 4 days later, we made it back to Westford,MA. were so lucky that neither of us got hurt, or even died. We were so happy tio be home and know that we are so fortanate. Later we watched the news and googled what scientists were saying about the earthquake we were in. Scientists said that the epi-center was 2 miles away from the hotel and underwater according to scientists, and that we were on the footwall of a normal fault. They said it was be a Richter Scale Rating would be around 7.8. The said the Moment Magnitude Scalewould be around 7.4. According to reporters many people died and about 1000 people were injured, or seriously hurt, they said 2 cities had been completely demolished, and that numerous amount of homes were affected. We were so fortunate not to have been seriously effected by the earthquake. Online we looked at pictures of the earthquake that were taken of the earthquake. Here is some pictures of the devastation and destruction of the earthquake and tsunami: **