A friend of mine is working as a teacher in an international school in Islamabad. I received the following email minutes ago, telling his personal account of the experience.

I had an interesting day yesterday but am fine and so
is my house. I was watching TV when the first
earthquake hit (over 20 aftershocks!) just before 9 AM
and looked out the window to see my car moving back
and forth in the driveway. I had encountered
earthquakes for the first time in Indonesia but still
didn’t think to get out of the house.

All the news is not good–they weren’t so fortunate a
couple of miles north of me where the Margalla Towers
are located. We have 4 families (with elementary
children) living in Tower #3 that crumbled plus the
elementary principal’s secretary. The secretary is
fine, if one can say that after losing your residence.

The rumor going around school is that two of our
students were killed and little is know about 2 of the
other families. We are hoping that they went out of
town for the weekend. There are plenty of choppers
buzzing over my house and an understandable quiet has
settled over the city.

The latest stats have 18,000
dead and 41,000 injured. The epicenter was 60 miles
north of Islamabad and most of the deaths and injuries
were closer to the epicenter. My cook’s family lives
in that general area. His wife called yesterday and
said that their “house was broken”. I gave him cash
and sent him home with the understanding he was to
stay as long as necessary.

One of my security guards
came to me this morning and said his relief guard
hadn’t showed and he hadn’t any contact with his
family since the earthquake hit. I called his company
and requested a replacement so he could leave and
check on his family. I’m feeling pretty guilty about my good fortune.