Earthquake in China
A 7.8 earthquake hit China last night, and the epicenter was just a few miles from where my in-laws live. The school and the hospital in their neighborhood have both collapsed, with ~900 students trapped in the rubble of the school. Mama's home phone is ringing, but there's no answer... and her cellphone is unreachable, which is not surprising since something like 300 cell towers in the area were knocked down by the quake. The death toll is 9000 and climbing, and we're trying to get more information.
UPDATE: Still no word from any of our family in Dujiangyan. Sometimes SMS works even when voice calls don't, so we sent several through the Internet and had a friend in Chongqing send one from his phone. I also e-mailed the American Consulate in Chengdu, but I imagine they're pretty busy already. I'm using Skype to further clog up the hopelessly clogged-up and badly damaged phone system in the area, with unpredictable results but no answers so far.
I can tell how upset my wife is, but she's remaining cool, calm and collected through all this, and it just amazes me.
UPDATE: Still no word from any of our family in Dujiangyan. Sometimes SMS works even when voice calls don't, so we sent several through the Internet and had a friend in Chongqing send one from his phone. I also e-mailed the American Consulate in Chengdu, but I imagine they're pretty busy already. I'm using Skype to further clog up the hopelessly clogged-up and badly damaged phone system in the area, with unpredictable results but no answers so far.
I can tell how upset my wife is, but she's remaining cool, calm and collected through all this, and it just amazes me.