Jezebel: earthquake

Damage Control

Anna — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:10:00 EDT

[Lalomanu, Samoa; September 30. Image via Getty]

LALOMANU, SAMOA - SEPTEMBER 30: A woman surveys the devastation following yesterday's 8.3 on the Richter scale strong earthquake which struck 200km from Samoa's capital Apia at 6.48am local time on September 30, 2009 in Lalomanu, Samoa. The quake triggered a tsunami wave up to 1.5 metres across areas of the island, with a death toll currently sitting at 113 fatalities but expected to rise. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Pig-Headed

Maria — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:45:00 EST

The "strong-willed pig" who survived 36 days buried under rubble after China's earthquake has been named the country's most inspirational animal. However, the pig's owners say the he's become lazy. That swine! [Times (UK)]

The Judge Judy Earthquake Episode

Tracie — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST

Over the summer, an earthquake in S. California interrupted a taping of Judge Judy. The footage of the hearing was released the next day, but we had to wait until now to and see how it was going to work its way into an actual episode. Here's what happened: JJ restored order almost immediately, and barely acknowledged the disturbance. The case she was hearing at the time concerned a woman suing her ex-boyfriend after he stole money out of her bank account to buy drugs. After the eruption, litigants continued to stick to their sides of the story, and displaying the same selfishness and stupidity. Sometimes even a natural disaster can't shake some sense into people.

Yesterday's Earthquake Shakes Up A Taping Of Judge Judy

Tracie — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

The earthquake in Southern California yesterday was a doozy, clocking in at 5.4 on the Richter scale. The good news is that there were few injuries as a result. The better news is that someone released footage of a Judge Judy taping that was taking place during the event. So what would Judge Judy do in the midst of such a shake? She would get the fuck out of there! She was the first one to jump out of her seat, and knowing her logic, she was probably standing in a doorway somewhere. There was momentary chaos as the audience in the studio scattered and the lights on the ceiling looked like they might fall down. Unsurprisingly, the plaintiff and the defendant were the only people who just stood there like idiots. Does JJ have to tell them tell them how to do everything?

Pandamonium

Jessica — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EDT

We love you, Coco Wang. Based in Beijing, Coco was inspired to create a series of comics called Earthquake Strips about the recent devastation in China. Wang says of her art, "I hope these stories could show the UK readers the love, warmth and courage of the Chinese people, also the sad and cruel reality of the horrible 5.12 Earthquake." The illustration at left is from a strip called "Panda Panda." Check out a full-size image of that particular illustration by clicking on the pandas. [Earthquake Strips via Paul Gravett via Boing Boing]

Wang Zhijun returned home to Sichuan province...

Moe — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Wang Zhijun returned home to Sichuan province two days before the earthquake. He had been traveling more cosmopolitan sections of the country for years, trying and failing at the rough business of making money in a corrupt and desperate place run by hucksters and plutocrats, when his wife convinced him to do the proverbial "coming up for air" thing and return home for a few weeks. (Air is not what they got.) (Yeah, pun, sorry.) Some choice moments of a story that reads like a Jimmy Stewart movie when you click the pic. [NYT]

Last Monday, she and her husband had just sat down in her fourth-floor apartment to watch a police soap opera on DVD when the dormitory, which houses dozens of factory workers, began shaking violently…He flung an arm around her as they sprinted for the bathroom eight feet away. The entire building collapsed right as they got there, knocking them to the ground. The wooden bathroom door slammed against Mr. Wang’s back. Clouds of dust filled their lungs.

They were trapped for 28 excruciating hours.

They had to take turns breathing. When Ms. Li took a deep breath, her chest expanding, Mr. Wang held his breath…“I don’t think I can make it,” he told his wife, Li Wanzhi, his face just inches from hers, their arms wrapped around each other. She sensed he was giving up. “If God wants to kill us, he would have killed us right away,” she said. “But since we’re still alive, we must be fated to live.”

Sigh.

They have no home to return to, but that is another problem for another time.
“The only thing we had was each other,” Mr. Wang said. “We encouraged each other to live on, and we said once we got out, we’d live a good life and care for each other. Now we have a new start.”

Yeah, Your Day Wasn't Really That Bad After All

Moe — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:30:00 EDT

The Sichuan earthquake has probably killed 9,000 people, and let 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia out into the streets, but if I know you guys it's the panda stuff that is really going to get to you. [Wash Post]
But — thanks investment banks! — it probably won't have that big an impact on the economy! [WSJ]
Or Beijing's standing as the number one toilet metropolis. [Xinhua]
Meanwhile in Burma the UN is projecting a death toll of 100,000, and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon can't get junta leader Than Shwe on the phone so he actually just sent a letter, and the US is still trying to get them to accept aid at all...[Wash Post]
Hillary is going to win the white vote by landslide margins in West Virginia because they're still coming to grips with the notion of the first Muslim president down there. [FT]
Well it's about time Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson vowed lifelong commitment.[US Weekly]

Our favorite place Yemen made the Foreign Policy list of five most dangerous food crises, but North Korea beat it out for number one. [FP]
John McCain does not plan on sticking around for the ice caps to melt but remember he has young children and sometimes even the capacity for independent thought. [NYT]
Which may sound radical but that's what Huckabee's there for. [US News]
If you think you can take advantage of the crap economy just by getting in on a payday loan business, well, you sort of can. [WSJ]
America steadfastly refuses to forget how comprehensively shitty the Bush Administration has been. [Wash Post]