Happy to satisfy the bloodlust of my readership, I'll give my relatively anticlimactic earthquake account. At around 2:00, Asanka and I were eating another delicious meal in the Dilmah cafeteria when my chair started wobbling. Now, these are wobbly chairs, so it took a little while to register. Eventually I asked Asanka if he felt anything. I stood up and concentrated, staring at the ground: "This is definitely an earthquake, Asanka," I said, and I looked up at him. The selfless employer that he is, Asanka was already sprinting down the stairs from our 2nd story table. Not particularly reassuring but by the time the office had emptied into the parking lot, there was a (mostly) light-hearted atmosphere.
One of the more shaken up (no pun intended) employees explained he was on Google Earth when the tremor began. I joked: "You didn't click, did you?!" This was not well-received, presumably because of the language barrier, not that it wasn't funny. That is funny.
After a few minutes, the rumbling subsided and Asanka and I finished our meals. Though Colombo is on the western side of Sri Lanka, the potential for a tsunami was on everyone's mind. Asanka would have none of it though and we left the office early to do the only rational thing it times of disaster: buy beer. This was an easier errand than normal as most traffic was competing to leave Colombo for higher, more inland areas. In the grocery store, Sri Lanka news anchors on a big screen TV assured us that the tsunami alert was lifted for Sri Lanka.
Asanka and I are now safe and sound watching cricket and drinking Lion Lager.
Oye. Guess Asanka has a personal escape plan, but maybe emergency plans for getting everyone to higher ground wouldn't be a bad idea. I just worked on a project involving Tohoku, so appreciate the challenge.
ReplyDeleteAlso wonder if the animals reacted before the tremor was felt, like (reportedly) in Aceh.
Glad all is well!