The Earthquake

It was a beautiful day like any other with the clear blue sky and the

nice cool breeze chilling my morning tea. Everything was peace and

quiet until I felt my chair shaking. I saw the tea water moving and my

little round tea table become restless. I went into the house and I

saw the dust falling down from the ceiling and the picture frames

swinging like a pendulum. Then I thought to myself, it was definitely

an earthquake happening. Nervous became fear as I ran to warn my

parents. But, when I reached them, the earthquake stopped.

Nothing happened in the next few hours. My family and I were safe and

our house was still standing. We watched the news and it was reported

an earthquake had occurred and its epicentre was very close to

Muzzafarabad. We felt very lucky to be in the city of Kashmir. We

watched the incident in the city and thought that what we had was just

the slightest taste of the earthquake in Muzzafarabad. Having that

thought, I quickly volunteered in a rescue team to help those helpless

victims.

I arrived in the cloudy city of Muzzafarabad with a few other

volunteer workers in the team. As I stepped out the jeep, the view I

had was far beyond the ones shown on television. I saw the city turned

into ruins with building collapsed to the ground, roads were

disaligned and people panicking. Many people tried to help out the

victims who were trapped under the rubble and big chunks of rocks.

Quickly, my team and I get to work.

After hours of digging and removing huge boulders, we found a few

survivors. They were quickly given water and checked for medical

attention. The survivors were reunited with their relatives, and to

see them with happiness and joy was an enough reward for me. However,

not everyone had a happy ending. We also found bodies of those who

didn’t make it through the earthquake. I felt horrible when I saw the

tears from the people who cried for their lost.