The killer quake of '90...

by Sonny Espejo

 

Earthquake. I also learned of it thru the chikka messenger. I called my wife and kids one by one and it seems like I’m more concerned than they are. No worries, they assured me, just a mild one.

Those of us who lived through the horrors of the 1990 killer quake are understandably panicky. I was in Candon, Ilocos Sur when that big one happened, supervising the construction of a four-story school building for the St Paul sisters at St Joseph Academy. Suddenly the terrifying tremors started accompanied by a deep rumbling, gently at first but growing stronger by the second, and then the earth trembled in its full fury for a seemingly endless duration.

Suddenly, in the school square where I was trying desperately to stay upright, wailing and hysterical High School kids converge with the nuns and teachers and my construction crew. It was pandemonium in the face. I never saw such a diverse group pray so hard and so desperately! Verily, in times like those, there are no atheist. Three or four more after-shocks happened within minutes of each other. And while the children are hauled off one by one by alarmed parents, and the teachers scampered towards home, Me and my construction gang who are mostly from Baguio and Asingan are left to assess the damages to our project.

A tumbled wall of freshly piled hollow blocks, some broken urinals, un-used concrete mixes, etc. –they’re the least of our worries. In our minds is the nagging question – are our families in Baguio and Pangasinan safe? We have to spend the night still in Candon because bridges are impassable. Power lines lay strewn all over the road. Telephone lines or what’s left of them are clogged.

And what a long and harrowing night it was, especially when the transistor radio broke in the news of death and devastation in Baguio, Dagupan, Cabanatuan and all other places. Fear and anxiety engulfed us despite reassurances from our local friends. All we want is go home; and go home we did at the first crack of dawn – walking, riding, climbing, wading and all the time thinking of home. I could never forget that.

Where were you when that monster happened?

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I was in Toronto when it happened..But I heard a few weird stories about  it..

** On a Sunday before the quake, a priest got a letter asking him to tell his congregation there will be an earthquake..Of course he did not read the letter otherwise there will be a panic ..And what if it did not happen?..But then, it did.Who but God would know what will happen next?.

** a beggar was asking for some food in a restaurant in Pangasinan. He was rudely shooed away, the beggar said.."something will happen to you in a few days.." When the quake struck, his restaurant toppled and he died under the rubble..

** a few hours before the quake started, the cloud formation atop a Pangasinan town took on the shape of a broom..After the quake, the whole town was wiped out as if a giant broom swept it away..

My sister Ester Costes Lomboy was in Asingan  during the killer quake.." The ground was  turning around like a phonograph platter, aside from that,  it was also rising up and down..After it stopped I run home, expecting that our house had gone down..When I saw it was still standing, I almost broke into tears.."

Francis ( Belo ) Malala related to me: "I was biking on my way home from Bantog. Then the ground shook..I saw the ground starting to open; I thought my bike and I would be swallowed by the crack, which was quite deep.."