City residents share their experiences in quake

May twenty-eighth, 2009 will be remembered as the day the earth shook Belize. In earlier reports, we showed the impact of the quake in the southern districts. There might have not been any visible signs of damage in the old capital but many Belize City residents rolled and in some cases ran out of their beds into the streets either from the tremors or the wailing sirens. News Five hit the streets this afternoon and asked city residents how they handled the moment when the earth shook.

Belize City Resident #1
“I enjoyed it a lot.”

Melanie Eiley
“Oh you did?”

Belize City Resident #1
“Yeah.”

Melanie Eiley
“You weren’t afraid?”

Belize City Resident #1
“Kind of yes, cause I have two daughters at home and my wife. so I was nervous but…”

Melanie Eiley
“Did you know what it was?”

Belize City Resident #1
“Yes, I have experiences before in Belize.”

Melanie Eiley
“Can you tell us your experience?”

Belize City Resident #1
“Well, nothing much. As we experienced the shake, we came out of the house and came right downstairs on Albert Street cause that’s the safest area to be. They say once you feel something like that you need to come out of the house.”

Belize City Resident #2
“When I went outside I saw all the fence shaking and the lamppost shaking too.”

Melanie Eiley
“Okay, what was that experience like for you?”

Belize City Resident #2
“It was a nervous experience at first but afterwards you just relax until ih pass because I felt it before.”

Belize City Resident #3
“I was up in Cayo, the ground shook at about three o’clock in the morning, pretty scary. We realize it came from either Guatemala or Honduras and the sound; the ground roared. You could feel the sound and the wave coming through the ground. Pretty scary.”

Melanie Eiley
“So what did you do?”

Belize City Resident #3
“We walked out of the building and stood outside because it was gonna come down. It took quite a while, I think it was close to almost a minute it was going.”

Belize City Resident #4
“I get up out of my sleep.”

Belize City Resident #5
“When I mi di sleep so I neva feel nothing. When I get up di morning and we si fi we machine and den deh move, and when we get up we just put it back inna place and we no do nothing else.”

Belize City Resident #6
“Very, very frightened. I look outside to see what was happening, if any house was shaking. I thought it was only my house and then afterwards I wake up my cousin and asked them if they feel the shake and she didn’t know.”

Belize City Resident #7
“Well, actually wake me out a mi bed.”

Melanie Eiley
“Did you know what it was immediately?”

Belize City Resident #7
“Noh at first because I mi think I mi di dream and when I get up out ah mi bed, I feel ih di shake so I seh well, probably wah earthquake. But I di try figure out like weh cause it or weh ih di come from, if dah from wah volcano erupt or something like that.”

Melanie Eiley
“So what was that experience like for you? Was it the first time you experienced it?”

Belize City Resident #7
“Yeah, so hard and it last long.”

Melanie Eiley
“Did you know immediately what it was?”

Belize City Resident #8
“At first I didn’t know but I felt the tremor. I though something was happening underneath my bed but actually it was an earthquake and I woke up and I was praying because it was frightening cause I never felt something like that before—at least not here. I’ve seen it in California but this was totally different. I never expected it here.”

Belize City Resident #9
“At first ih mi kinda frightening but den I done know dah earthquake and di older people always seh wah earthquake noh wah dangerous inna wah wooden building and I know dat fi wah fact because wah cement building always wah crumble up.”

Belize City Resident #10
“I just accepted it and I just lie down deh until it went off. It’s not the first one; it’s the heaviest so far and the longest.”

Belize City Resident #11
“It shook my bed and I wake up fighting.”

Melanie Eiley
“What was that experience like for you?”

Belize City Resident #11
“Well, the first time I felt it like that; different times but this is the first time it was very heavy.”

Melanie Eiley
“What do you think of NEMO’s response to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning?”

Belize City Resident #11
“I’m not sure about that one.”