Pupils’lives spared during Falmont earthquake
FALMONT—On 17 March, 476 students and 36 teachers at Falmont Primary School escaped an earthquake that hit the county at 2:27 p.m. Only 5 students suffered slight injuries, despite the current figures of 7 killed and over 200 injured in the disaster area at large.
Alice Brown, head teacher at Falmont Primary School, was teaching when the floor began to shake. Her students’ reaction was quick and correct—they moved under their desks, head first, and held on to the legs of the desks. At the same time, Miss Brown quickly opened the classroom door, in case it became damaged during the shaking and could not open. There were loud crashes of glass breaking and things falling to the ground, but the students remained still and waited calmly and quietly.
The moment the shaking stopped, Miss Brown sensed it was the best time for the class to make their escape. She signalled to her students to exit the classroom in an orderly line covering their heads with their hands. Within one minute and twenty seconds, the whole class went down the stairs and rushed to the playground. Soon students from other classes arrived too. After a roll call confirmed that all were safe and sound, they relaxed, laughing, crying and hugging each other.
“We practise earthquake safety procedures twice a year,” said Miss Brown, “so the kids were calm enough to protect themselves during the earthquake.”
Girl saves 100 fromtsunami
NEWDALE—On 20 December, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea earthquake raced across the ocean near Goldshore and left thousands dead. Goldshore Beach was the only local beach to survive the disaster without any loss of life. A 10 – year – old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around 100 people escape danger with her knowledge of tsunamis.
The day began like any other on Goldshore Beach. People were walking, running or simply sitting on the sandy beach, enjoying the warm sea air and the soft wind that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something odd. “The water was like the bubbles on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t calm and it wasn’t going in and then out. It was just coming in and in and in.” Sabrina had just learnt about tsunamis in a Geography lesson. It immediately occurred to her that these were signs of an approaching tsunami.
Sabrina was frightened, but she soon kept her head. She warned her parents of the danger, though at first they just thought she was joking. However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible disaster was on its way and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety officer. To her great relief, the officer immediately realized the coming danger. The beach was rapidly cleared of people, just before the huge waves crashed into the coast.