I felt the whole building swaying......

These past few days, I have been busy accompanying a client to view some houses. She lives on the 14th floor of a condominum on the east coast. When the 8.4 Richter Scale earthquake struck nearby south Indonesia on Wednesday evening, she had a terrifying experience. Her chandelier was swinging wildly, her apartment was swaying too. She felt dizzy, immediately gathered her kids and ran down the stairs. The next morning, she felt another tremor.

This isn't the first time she's experiencing the tremors of earthquakes in nearby Indonesia. It happened last year too. But this time she is so frightened that she insisted on getting a house or a ground floor apartment.

Well, I can't blame her because I went through that terrifying experience too, a few years back. I was living on the 18th floor of an apartment which is 22 years old and had a structural problem. It was late that night, I was lying in bed reading my papers when I felt the bed shaking.

Young Jaymes was sitting beside me, playing with his Lego. I scolded him for rocking the bed. He denied and then I saw the heavy curtians swaying. Hubby, who was in the bathroom, rushed out and asked if I felt the apartment swaying.

We looked at each other, then without a second thought, he grabbed Jaymes and we rushed out the door. Our neighbours were also outside and they were waiting for the lift!! We just headed for the stairs and ran down. There were already many others before us.

Getting down to the ground floor seemed like an eternity to me. We were on the 18th floor. The whole building was shaking! My knees were wobbly and I was feeling groggy. Hubby kept looking back to see if I was alright.

"Go!! Just go! Don't bother about me." I was very frightened and at that moment, I just wished for us to get out of there alive. The thought of the whole building collapsing and burying us was very scary.

When I finally got to the ground floor, my knees buckled and I fell onto the grass. Hubby had to run back to pull me up. The people behind us were jostling to run for cover. We finally made it to an open carpark 600 metres away. By then, a huge crowd of residents had gathered. We later learnt that residents from other buildings nearby also ran out of their houses.

We stayed in the carpark for more than an hour. The men tried to get updates on the situation but all emergency hotlines were engaged. We didn't know what to do because Singapore has never had such tremors before then.

Many people were caught unawares and most of us were in our night gowns and pajamas. I saw the worse sights of our neighbours. kekeke.......... and then, I realised I was not wearing my undies. aiyooooo.....