Earthquake & 9-11

The earthquake in Sichuan happened a little over a week ago, but I was actually oblivious to it until 10 minutes later some of my friends IM’ed me asking if I felt it. Nada…but for some of my friends in high-rises, they said the entire building shook laterally at least 3 feet for almost 5 minutes! That’s pretty incredible considering the earthquake happened about 1000 miles away from Shanghai which is still farther than say Chicago to DC (~650 mi).

To be honest the aftermath of it reminds me a lot of 9-11 back home, in the way that people are responding to the natural disaster, hearing about amazing human feats of survival, workers digging tirelessly to rescue the victims under the rubble…

From what I hear it’s been covered a lot back in the US, but I think here are a few links worth passing along. (It might be a bit slow for those of you not in China)

(From 南方都市报)
looks like a tornado went thru there…except imagine if there were hundreds of tornadoes simultaneously)

(From 南方都市报)
a couple taking their wedding pictures as the earthquake happened - this is 8 minutes after the first earthquake

People getting together in shanghai to remember the earthquake victims

Lastly, the government put out a notice saying “为表达全国各族人民对四川汶川大地震遇难同胞的深切哀悼，国务院决定，2008年5月19日至21日为全国哀悼日。在此期间，全国和各驻外机构下半旗志哀，停止公共娱乐活动，外交部和我国驻外使领馆设立吊唁簿。5月19日14时28分起，全国人民默哀3分钟，届时汽车、火车、舰船鸣笛，防空警报鸣响”

Essentially it says, from 5/19-21st, to remember the victims of the earthquake, the gov’t has decided that the flag will be at half mast, and must cease all public entertainment events. Further, on 5/19 at 2:28 there will be 3 minutes of moment of silence.

In response websites grayed out their logos or sites or even shut it down entirely for 3 days.

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