Syria Earthquake Experience

At 4 a.m. on February 6,2023, at our home in Idlib in northwestern Syria(叙利亚), we were shaken awake by a powerful earthquake.

It was a terror like nothing I had ever experienced before. Our home was shaking. The TV and computer screens were falling. And the walls were breaking into pieces.

I was with my wife and parents. At that moment, I didn't think we would survive. We moved without changing clothes, without our belongings, without food. We just ran, along with everyone in our building.

Luckily, we managed to escape. It wasn't just me and my family who had moved as fast as we could. Almost everyone had left everything behind. Many were barefoot(赤脚的). Nobody spoke to each other.We had no idea what was going on or what to do. Some people were crying.

The first thing I felt after I got out of my building was how cold it was.We jumped in our car and drove for almost 90 minutes, looking for a safe place to stay.Finally, we stopped at a farm. People were gathering there because there were no large buildings around.

About four hours after the first shake, I headed back into the city, toward the areas hardest hit by the earthquake. As a reporter, I knew I had to record what was happening.

By the sixth or seventh hour, in the rain and the freezing cold, rescue efforts had begun. Many volunteers and emergency services were working hard to pull people and bodies out of the rubble(碎石; 碎砖). I went from building to building, recording the fear that people felt. I recorded their suffering, but I also recorded the bravery of the rescuers.

It was an incredibly difficult time hard to describe.We felt tired, scared, and hopeless.

At 6 a. m. on February 7, we finally returned home. Little is left of our belongings, but at least we have each other.