Earthquake

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On my third day in Karimabad I got up more quickly than usual. It was at around eigth in the morning. I was still lieing in my nice and warm bed and pearing out of the window to the snowy white mountains. The bed started shaking. My first thought was that the bed might be a bit unstable as they tend to be in cheap guest houses. But then I realized that the whole room was shaking. Mh, maybe the whole guest house is a bit unstable and a truck has just passed? When the shaking finally got stronger, about 5-10cm amplitude, 2-3Hz
I could not denie it any longer: earthquake! In five seconds I was out of the bed, in my shoes and coat and out of the building.
Outside everything was shaking. In front of the neighbouring guesthouse Nick and his friends were standing and marveling. In many places in the vally small landslides came down. Up in the mountains white clouds showed that avalanches had been triggered. Nick's friend Ko How had been fast enough to take pictures of the avalanches at Ultar. The pictures I show here are from him.
After about fifteen seconds the earthquake was over. In Hunza Valley almost nobody was harmed. Most houses are simple but well-build one-story buildings. I didn't see any colapsed building here. But as we got to know later through the news on TV it had been one of the most severe earthquakes Pakistan and northern India had ever had. The death toll is well above 30.000 and still rising.

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