coming through disaster blog | coming through disaster blog
Apr.07.2011
I woke as my husband crawled over me and whispered in my ear, “Don’t be scared, we’re having an earthquake.” As I became more alert I could feel the building shake, and as soon as the shaking subsided, my husband told me to quickly put some clothes on so we could go outside.
We had arrived in Palm...
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Apr.07.2011
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
My father had gotten the idea from my older sister to open a hair salon shortly after my mother passed away. She was a business woman with previous experience running a salon. Although I...
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Apr.07.2011
One thing people always ask -- when they find out I live in San Francisco -- is “Aren’t you afraid of earthquakes?” Of course I am. But I was here for the 7.2 in 1989, which has given me endless enjoyment in retrospect. How many people can tell stories about living through natural disasters?...
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Apr.07.2011
The painting is sunlit, cheerful, representing one of those fine smog-free Southern California days that must have been fairly common early last century. The scene is likely Pasadena (though Santa Barbara is also a possibility), with the San Gabriel Mountains looming in the distance. Several...
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Apr.07.2011
May 25, 1955 9:25 p.m. TORNADO! A merging of two tornado clouds south of Blackwell, Oklahoma led to a large tornado funnel sweeping through the east side of town obliterating twenty-two blocks of homes and damaging sixty blocks more. God was with us that night because death count was much...
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Apr.07.2011
We are creatures of survival; that is why we are still thriving, evolving and living on this beautiful planet called EARTH. In my lifetime I have personally experienced World War II bombings and then escape from a country in the grip of communism. I have had to start my life in a new country with...
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Apr.07.2011
Sometimes vanity is a good thing. Just ask my friend Angela. One day some years back she was riding the subway to work. She was really excited that morning because she was going to be interviewing for a big promotion in another department. Her boss thought she was a lock for the promotion, but even...
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Apr.07.2011
One does not live by bread alone. Sumathi realized it not until she had some bread again: She could not eat any longer. However, she lost much more than just her appetite. Neither could she sleep any longer. And, in some quiet moments, she was thinking to herself, she even should not live any...
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Apr.06.2011
2:46pm, March 11, 2011. Tokyo, Japan.
I’d just finished a yoga class at my studio in downtown Tokyo and walked down the street to have lunch at Ootoya, a favorite cafe. I’d just placed my order when the building started to shake. I was on the second floor of a five-story concrete building built...
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Apr.06.2011
At 9:00 AM on November 28, 1992, the phone rang at my sister’s place in Calgary while I was visiting family over Thanksgiving break. My companion (now my husband) Michael was calling from California, the day before I was scheduled to return there. It was odd to hear from him in the morning. He...
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