Custom Search
Personal Pictures of the Recent China Earthquake
At the locally famous 100-year-old Church of the Annunciation in Pengzhou China
In the afternoon of May 12, photographer Wang went about preparing to shoot wedding pictures for a young couple, this was the test shot before the shoot.
Pengzhou is located in Sichuan Province. It was about 2:25 p.m. on May 12, 2008. And then it happened.... the earth quake! 7.8 on the Richter scale.
Bricks fall from the building during the earthquake, which turned Wang from a wedding photographer into a journalist. 'Thank God we were only shooting from outside the church!' remarked a helper.
The stunned couple huddles together at the church ground during initial tremors. 'I shouted to people, 'Run! Run!'' said photographer Wang Qiang. 'The ground shook and we couldn't see anything in the dust.' As the dust began to clear, the true extent of damage was only beginning to appear...
A cracked facade was all that remained of the 100-year-old Church of the Annunciation after the quake. Most of the church 'collapsed in 10 seconds,' said Wang, who lives in Chengdu , capital of hard-hit Sichuan province.
Soon after the quake, the people at the seminary set out for a nearby village, but residents warned them the route was blocked. 'We could still hear landslides,' Wang wrote in an online account of the disaster. So they stayed overnight in a tent and made it to the village the next day, thanks to help from a truck driver.
A scarf from a wedding dress lies forgotten in front of the seminary. Wang said he thought the catastrophe would strengthen the bonds of the couples who were there that day: 'Having gone through a life-and-death test, they surely will clasp hands and grow old together.'
No one was harmed at the above location. They'll have a wild story to tell their children!
Love and smiles across the miles.
Paco & Jo
From: remelin@suddenlink.net