I was encouraged by a few people to write down all of the events of the earthquake for my own remembering, but also to better process. Here is what happened that day:
We were hosting about 12 people at our house. We had breakfast together and then we had worshipped together. Asher was sitting beside me on the couch.
Suddenly the room started to shake. At first it was just a little, but then it started to progressively get worse. There was a look of panic on a gal's face sitting across from me and immediately everyone go up. I don’t remember a lot after that, but I know that I grabbed Asher and everyone ran into the entry way. I screamed at Reed to go get Urban. I remember seeing Reed run down the hall as the rest of us stayed together in the entry way. It was really only a matter of seconds. I think the whole earthquake lasted 25 seconds. But it really felt a lot longer than that. Two ladies with us opened the front door and a few of us hovered under the door frame. The sounds of the walls cracking, tile falling, and screams are etched in my memory. I was frightened, yet totally in shock as to what was taking place. I don’t
remember what other people were doing or where they were. The floor was shaking, the whole building was swaying and plaster was falling from the ceiling. Tile was popping off the wall in the stairwell and crashing to the floor.
My neighbor, Ozlem, opened her door with a look of complete fright holding her baby and other two children. Suddenly there was a lull and one of our guests told us to run outside. I
remember thinking, “I have my slippers on!” Which is kind of silly, when you are in a crisis to even care about it. :) But there was no time for shoes. I was hesitant, because plaster and tile were continuing to fall, but I ran and escaped out with Asher and the rest of our guests. It seemed like an eternity trying to get down the stairs even though it was a matter of
seconds.
Once outside I waited, but there was no Reed or Urban. Little did I know that Reed had tried to escape out the fire escape door in Urban’s room. He fell down the fire escape stairs only to discover a padlock on the cage door at the bottom of the stairwell. He banged on it trying to get out, but realized there was no use. So he had to go back up through our house again.
In the parking lot of our apartment many were crying, screaming, and standing around in shock.
We were advised by our friend to leave in our car and go to an open area far
away from the buildings. We took off in our car. On the way, there were a few more aftershocks. Our car was swaying back and forth on the road. On the way, I said to Reed that I couldn’t believe we were living through this. This usually happened to other people and you see it on the news, thinking…Oh, those poor people. Now we were living it. We made it to an open grassy area, where many people were gathering. We were there for an hour or so. We turned on the radio in our car to hear that we were being advised to not stay in our places for a few days due to potentially more damaging aftershocks. We decided we’d head back to our place and
quickly try and grab a few more essentials if we were going to have to be away for a few days.
We headed back on the road. We decided that Reed should go in the house alone first. He grabbed blankets, a few items for Asher and Urban, and some snacks.
Once he was back out a friend and I went in. I grabbed a few more items and we ran out
quickly. Thinking now, we were not processing things well and weren't prepared for an emergency like this. We grabbed what we thought was necessary, but forgot to get our passports and a few other essentials. So we had no i.d. on us at all. We didn’t realize this until later. (we have since retrieved our passports!) We met up our American friends and decided that
the best thing for us was to leave the city. We drove 6 hours to another city that was not affected by the earthquake.
We had no carseat in the car at that time for Urban, so I held him the whole time. From the time of the earthquake he never made a sound. He just wanted to be held. He really seemed shook up. He slept most of the car ride. Asher asked a lot of questions and I could tell he really wanted to talk about what happened.
He kept saying, Mommy, the walls were falling down.” “What happened to the elevator?” “Everyone was scared.” Will the walls fall down again?” When can we go home”? Will daddy fix our house?”
We drove and I sat completely stunned and shocked. We were really exhausted by the time we found a hotel. We finally had internet access at the hotel and were able to talk with
our families and send out an email to family and friends. Urban had a fever that night and was so restless and uncomfortable. I didn’t sleep a wink.
Monday, October 24, 2011
On Monday, Reed and our other American friend decided they would best be used
back in our city. So all of the ladies and children traveled on to Adana. That was another 6 hour trip. It was a long day, but overall the kids did great in the car.
I was mentally and physically exhausted though. I felt numb at some points and at other times
tears flowed. I felt like a refugee having to leave my home with nothing and not knowing what my life will look like now.
In Adana we spent most of the first few days, just buying basic things for daily living. American
families in Adana have been so gracious to us as we have clothes, food, books,toys, etc.
Current:
As of now I am staying in an apartment with my American friend that left with us and her children. We are doing well and learning to adapt to a different city and routine. Reed stayed and helped with relief work, but is now with me and the kids. He definitely needed a break from it all. There has been at least 1300 aftershocks since that Sunday and he has not gotten a lot of sleep. So now he is trying to rest and recoup. Many people fled our city if they could, but the others are staying in tents. We are burdened for them as the temperatures are really cold right now, but also burdened for them spiritually. We pray that hearts will be changed and made new through all this.
Our apartment was inspected and deemed structurally sound. That is a praise! I'm not sure when we will return though. There is a lot of work to be done on the inside and we don't have heat yet in our place. Reed will return next week and the kids and I will wait until it is wise for all of us to be there. Until then, I am trying to trust in God's plan for us and praising Him for his protection and mercy upon us.
Here are a few pics that Reed took while in our city last week:
This is a house that had collapsed:
Here two apartment buildings fell against each other:
Rescue workers working on a collapsed building:
Another collapsed building:
Tent cities set up housing thousands of people:
A gas station roof collapsed:
Looking into a house:
Remains of a home:
Damage to the outside of this building:
Some children staying in a tent:
A wall in Urban's room:
Our bathroom: Many tiles had fallen off the wall.
Our bathroom wall:
Our entry way:
Our living room wall:
