Quake survivors recount ordeal

DUJIANGYAN, China — Tang Xiaomin had just left her fourth-floor apartment to buy groceries when the building started crumbling around her. An upstairs neighbor was thrown against the kitchen table and grabbed her purse before rushing out. Another resident, who was expecting a baby, was resting and became trapped.

The three occupants of the six-story apartment building at 315 Happiness Road were just some of the residents who managed to survive Monday's earthquake, although many of their neighbors did not. They endured moments of terror, shock, relief and worry as they try to rebuild their lives.

'It's hard to take because we never, ever experienced anything like this before,' said Tang, standing in front of a shelter of plastic sheets, umbrellas and bamboo poles she now calls home.

Tang, 40 and unemployed, had moved into the newly built apartment 10 years ago, using compensation awarded when the government demolished her former home as part of China's urban renewal boom. The apartment was home to her and her husband, their 16-year-old son, who was at school when the quake struck, and Tang's 61-year-old mother.

The mother was alone in the apartment when the temblor hit. Hours later, rescuers eased her through a gap in the apartment's facade and down to the street below.

The family spent Monday night camped under an umbrella in a chilly drizzle, numb from both the cold and their ordeal but relieved to be alive and together.

Luo Ying was one flight upstairs from Tang, in a fifth-floor apartment, when the building began shaking at 2:27 p.m.

The department store clerk remembers chunks of tile and cement crashing all around her as she scrambled down five flights of stairs with her neighbors.

'I was covered in dust when I got to the bottom. I didn't dare believe it,' she said.

Seeking shelter from the rain, Luo and her neighbors scavenged a canopy from an electronics store promotional event and piled old signboards high with salvaged blankets. By dusk, about five hours after the quake, police and military units arrived, bringing relief, Luo said, 'We knew we weren't alone and that someone would help.'

Zhang Xiaoyan is perhaps the most famous resident of 315 Happiness Road.

Eight months pregnant, she was lying on a couch in her living room with her mother when the magnitude-7.9 quake collapsed the apartment's walls and trapped them in a space less than 2 feet high filled with rubble and broken furnishings.

While China and much of the world watched rapt on television Wednesday, Zhang was pulled from the rubble 50 hours later. Zhang's mother was pulled out shortly afterward. Both looked shaken but were not seriously injured. They had been given water during the ordeal and rescuers were able to talk to them.

As the ambulance sped off through clogged traffic, rescuers threw their arms in the air and cheered.