`That morning, I woke up and opened the internet on my computer. My friends in China sent me messages on MSN,' said Wei Zhou, a PhD student in the faculty of Science and Technology, whose hometown of Ya'an rest 200 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter.
Staying in touch with her loved ones proved to be difficult with phone lines malfunctioning for the first hours after the disaster, `It was impossible to make a connection. A few hours passed, and then one of my relatives came on the internet,' said Zhou. He told her: `Everybody is fine, we are just shocked and feeling terrified.'
`In my hometown of Zi yang, 100 kilometers from the epicenter, ten people were killed. The earthquake reached a level of 5.0 to 6.0 on the Richter scale in my city,' said Chunlin Song, a PhD student in the faculty of Science and Technology. `I think most people were injured or killed by roof tiles breaking and falling from buildings in my country, rather than by the collapse of buildings.'
Like many of the helpless people in China, Zhou's parents were caught precariously on the seventh floor of a high-rise apartment building that shook, according to Zhou, for two to three minutes. `They thought maybe it would only last for a few seconds. The dishes and cups crashed to the floor, and they tried to get out, down to the ground floor to the open air.'
Living on the fourth floor, Song's family in the city of Zi yang experienced a similar horror, `The government of my country asked for the people to sleep outside. My parents spent almost one week living outside,' said Song.
To add a feeling of misery to the situation, for almost an entire week following the earthquake, storms and heavy rains soaked the disaster area and outlying regions. The last big natural disaster to hit China happened 32 years ago when the Tangshan earthquake shook the city of Hebei, which lasted for 10 seconds and registered a 7.8 magnitude.
`They reported that this earthquake was quite close to the surface of the earth,' said Song.
`Normally, high-magnitude earthquakes will be far away from the earth's surface, but this time, it was only around 15 to 20 kilometers from the surface. So, in fact, the power was much greater than earthquakes which originate from deeper below the earth's surface,' said Zhou.
With a sense of patriotism for their country, Song and Zhou felt pride in their government's actions following the earthquake, which showed for the first time a new visibility on the part of Chinese officials. `Our Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Dujiangyan just five hours after the earthquake hit. It normally takes three hours by airplane from Beijing to reach the disaster area, which means, he boarded a flight only two hours after the earthquake took place,' said Zhou. Song agreed, `Even though China is not totally open, our government reacted to this disaster with transparency.' `Nowadays, we have the internet, which moves information much quicker,' added Zhou.
The outpouring of concern from their UT professors, fellow colleagues and friends helped to comfort both students. `My professor immediately extended his sympathy to my family,' said Song. Coincidentally, Song along with his professor Dr. Henny Bouwmeester, were planning to travel together to the Sichuan Province this summer.
`My parents are trying to stop me from coming home; they want for me to be in a safe place. But, I'm definitely going back to my hometown this summer,' remarked Song.
`We know that on Saturday, members of the Association of Chinese Students handed out flyers to the people of Enschede in the city center. And we have heard that they received many positive reactions,' said Zhou.
While writing this article, another powerful aftershock, registering a 6.4 magnitude, shook central China destroying more buildings and taking human lives in its path of devastation.
For specific information on how you can donate to the relief efforts in China, visit the UT Nieuws weblink: http://www.utnieuws.utwente.nl/new/?artikel_id=72175
(Donation information is listed at the end of the article, Chinese UT-Studenten zetten hulpactie op)
