When Disaster Starts - Essay Example

April 7, English Mohammed Al-naama Rebecca James When disaster starts On the 16th of May in 2009, on a Saturday, I was in Qatar, mysmall country that is located in the Arabian Gulf, though it is listed as the Persian Gulf, which is the name that most Americans are familiar with. I was in a deep sleep when suddenly my mobile phone starts ringing. I wake up and take a look at the phone, glancing at the clock that was in my room on the wall at the front my bed. It was 7:30 in the morning. The caller was Ali, who is my best friend. I answered the phone with the fear that something horrible has happened. "Hey Ali, is there a problem?" Ali replied, "No! But we are suppose to go to Saudi Arabia today for my cousin’s wedding." My heart was beating hard, thanking God that everything was okay. "I totally forgot about it." Ali’s cousin was going to marry a girl from Saudi Arabia that he met in school and fell in love with. We were suppose to leave at noon so we can arrive by one in the afternoon. The trip was about 12 hours to the city which would host the big wedding. We arrived exactly at one in the afternoon; the wedding was suppose to take place the next day, Sunday the 17th of May. During the day should be when Ahmad marries Sarah, but unlike the European marriage tradition, our weddings are suppose to happen at night. I woke up at five in the morning to do the Fajer pray, which is the first prayer we have to do at the start of every day. When I was on my way back to the hotel, I heard some of the prayers in the mosque, as well as talk about an earthquake, but I didn’t have any clue about this earthquake until I arrived to the hotel again. People were leaving the hotel and there was a big mess in the lobby. The staff were shouting, "Come dawn, come dawn, nothing is certain yet". I didn’t understand a thing of what is happening, and I went to my room thinking that there might be a problem between the staff of the hotel and some of the guests. I turned on the TV and, by coincidence, the channel was Aljazeera, which is one of the biggest news channels in the Middle East. The news in the red bar read “A volcano might hit Saudi Arabia because of an earthquake". I opened my mouth and stayed completely still. Ali asked me what happened, so I pointed with my finger to the news. We called Ahmed, who told us that the wedding will be cancelled because of the earthquake. After everything was cancelled, the wedding, the festival and the marriage, we decided that we should run away from this potential earthquake. We thought for a while that it just a bad dream, the kind of dream that makes you feel bad first thing in the morning after you have woken up. Unfortunately, this was not a dream. This is when natural disasters speak. At this time, we felt that every second was a minute and that every minuet was an hour. We started to collect our clothes, pack up our luggage, feeling that with every minute we wasted we drew closer to death. Some stuff we lost, leaving it behind, but they were not important items, such as cloths, money, and passports. And even all of that was not important at that moment in our life, which was on the line, and that was what we were all thinking about. We ran down the stairs of the hotel. It was a mess down in the lobby. Everybody was shouting and screaming and hundreds of people were scrambling to the hotel exit door, so we did the same. We ignored that we had to check out, because at this moment nothing was more important than escaping. We went to our black car as if death was following us. We put our bags in the trunk and started the engine to escape to a safer place. When we were trying to find our way out of the hotel garage, I started to think about my life and what I did for myself. I thought of my mother and father and wondered if there was a chance to see them at least one more time, or if death would come and take me away before I had the chance. I remembered all of my sins against my father, mother and brothers. I started to think about if I had been a good son. I hoped so. Suddenly, I am wrenched from my thoughts. A white GMC white truck had hit us in the passenger side as soon as we had left the garage. I was not injured, thank God. The truck had an old man and his wife and children. I still remember the looks on their faces. It was the look of fear of losing everything, even the small things like stories before bed, but they were confidant because they had their parents, and they knew that they would protect them no matter what happened. "I wish I was a small child," my heart was thinking. We got out of the car and started running to the red firefighter car, leaving everything behind, bags and the car. The land began to shake. I stayed still, like a tree that had all of its roots in the ground. My heart started beating like a drum, and I started to see my veins, and I was terrified. After three minuets, I looked around and saw that the land was cracked, trees had fallen down, and houses were destroyed, but thanked God all the same that I didnt see blood, for now at least. I was thinking that everything was done by now and that this was the worst damage that happened or will happen, but unfortunately I was wrong. After fifteen minutes, the land started to shake again but this time I was in the firetruck. They were taking people outside of the city to somewhere safe. But we hadn’t reached the safe side just yet. At this moment, a huge building fell in front of my eyes, causing the truck to hit street lights. A big piece of glass got into Ali’s arm, and my head slammed into the front seat. Blood covered my face, and everything I started to see was blurry. I was thinking that this was my last minute of life, and I lost consciousness for the next three hours, which was what the doctor told me. I woke up, finding myself in a hospital with Ali in the bed nearest to me. I asked the doctor if everything was done and he said, "Everything is good now, you should call you family". Before picking up the phone and calling my family, my eyes went to the remote control of the TV, so I turned it on to see the news. The news said that it there had been three earthquakes; the first one was 4.5 on the Richter scale, the second one was 4.8, which was the one that I had been injured in. The last one hit after I left the city, which had been a 5.2. After that, I called my family in Qatar and let them know that I was okay and that everything was good. My mother was crying, thinking that she had lost her son. I felt the pain that she had in her hart, her tears were in my tears, and her pain was my pain. I think this is called the love between a mother and her son. I closed the phone and my heart was full of sadness. Ali said, “What about Ahmed?" "Yes, what about him? I should call him." I called Ahmed on his mobile phone but he didn’t pick up, so I called him at his house and he picked up. "Hey Ahmed, how is everything?" I said. He replied, "Everything is okay and everybody is safe". He told me that his wedding was delayed until next month. His voice was combined with sadness and happiness. I think he was sad because of the wedding; he loved this girl more than anything in the world. And I think he was happy because everyone was okay, his bride, her family and his. I didn’t know earthquakes were so dangerous, but I knew that we couldn’t defeat nature but we could deal with it. This earthquake was not so strong if we compared it with tsunamis or the Haiti earthquake, but it was definitely dangerous and is something we should be prepared for. We knew the consequences of earthquakes now, so we should not make the same mistake again. We should prepare for it so that we have fewer losses. It had been a terrible day for me and for the people who lived through the same experience. I didn’t lose someone special and close to me, but I am sure that there are hundreds that had bigger losses than a car and money. Read More

We thought for a while that it just a bad dream, the kind of dream that makes you feel bad first thing in the morning after you have woken up. Unfortunately, this was not a dream. This is when natural disasters speak. At this time, we felt that every second was a minute and that every minuet was an hour. We started to collect our clothes, pack up our luggage, feeling that with every minute we wasted we drew closer to death. Some stuff we lost, leaving it behind, but they were not important items, such as cloths, money, and passports.

And even all of that was not important at that moment in our life, which was on the line, and that was what we were all thinking about. We ran down the stairs of the hotel. It was a mess down in the lobby. Everybody was shouting and screaming and hundreds of people were scrambling to the hotel exit door, so we did the same. We ignored that we had to check out, because at this moment nothing was more important than escaping. We went to our black car as if death was following us. We put our bags in the trunk and started the engine to escape to a safer place.

When we were trying to find our way out of the hotel garage, I started to think about my life and what I did for myself. I thought of my mother and father and wondered if there was a chance to see them at least one more time, or if death would come and take me away before I had the chance. I remembered all of my sins against my father, mother and brothers. I started to think about if I had been a good son. I hoped so. Suddenly, I am wrenched from my thoughts. A white GMC white truck had hit us in the passenger side as soon as we had left the garage.

I was not injured, thank God. The truck had an old man and his wife and children. I still remember the looks on their faces. It was the look of fear of losing everything, even the small things like stories before bed, but they were confidant because they had their parents, and they knew that they would protect them no matter what happened. "I wish I was a small child," my heart was thinking. We got out of the car and started running to the red firefighter car, leaving everything behind, bags and the car.

The land began to shake. I stayed still, like a tree that had all of its roots in the ground. My heart started beating like a drum, and I started to see my veins, and I was terrified. After three minuets, I looked around and saw that the land was cracked, trees had fallen down, and houses were destroyed, but thanked God all the same that I didnt see blood, for now at least. I was thinking that everything was done by now and that this was the worst damage that happened or will happen, but unfortunately I was wrong.

After fifteen minutes, the land started to shake again but this time I was in the firetruck. They were taking people outside of the city to somewhere safe. But we hadn’t reached the safe side just yet. At this moment, a huge building fell in front of my eyes, causing the truck to hit street lights. A big piece of glass got into Ali’s arm, and my head slammed into the front seat. Blood covered my face, and everything I started to see was blurry. I was thinking that this was my last minute of life, and I lost consciousness for the next three hours, which was what the doctor told me.

I woke up, finding myself in a hospital with Ali in the bed nearest to me. I asked the doctor if everything was done and he said, "Everything is good now, you should call you family". Before picking up the phone and calling my family, my eyes went to the remote control of the TV, so I turned it on to see the news. The news said that it there had been three earthquakes; the first one was 4.5 on the Richter scale, the second one was 4.8, which was the one that I had been injured in. The last one hit after I left the city, which had been a 5.2. After that, I called my family in Qatar and let them know that I was okay and that everything was good.

My mother was crying, thinking that she had lost her son. I felt the pain that she had in her hart, her tears were in my tears, and her pain was my pain.

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