 |
|
I don't actually live in Khabarovsk; I just came here with Galya after the earthquake in Sakhalin last May. We live in Okha, which is about a hundred kilometers away from Neftegorsk, the city which was destroyed.
The earthquake lasted for seventeen seconds. Things were falling everywhere, the piano bounced up and down, and some seedlings we were growing for the dacha went flying all the way across the room. It was terrible. It happened just after midnight, so my daughter Tanya -- Galya's mother -- and I were still awake, but Galya was asleep in her room; in fact she slept right through it...
Galya:
When I woke up, there were books and things all around me in my bed. Everything had fallen off my shelves, but somehow nothing fell on my face or my stomach! Can you believe it? Things were falling everywhere, but I didn't get hurt at all!
Galina Sergeyevna:
We were very lucky. In Neftegorsk, there were 3,000 people living there before the earthquake. Afterwards, only a little more than 1,000 were still alive. Whole families died suddenly. Human hope was just crushed in that village.
Now Galya and I are staying in a shelter set up for people who left Sakhalin. That would be a real international scandal if I took you to see it. You can't imagine how bad it is -- dirty, no running water, the toilets are outside.
There is no money to take care of people properly -- only those people who lived in Neftegorsk at the time of the earthquake were evacuated. Since we were in Okha, we had to pay for our tickets here ourselves.
We want to go back to Okha, but they have predicted that there will be another earthquake in late September. Galya is supposed to start school this year, but why have her start here and then leave? For now we will just have to sit here and wait. I talk to my daughter on the telephone, and she says she is scared to death every time she feels a little tremor.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
