"It was shaking very hard": eyewitness monologues about the earthquake in Kamchatka
Residents of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Severo-Kurilsk in the Sakhalin Region experienced the strongest earthquake in the last 73 years, with tremors reaching 8.7. Although the epicenter of activity was in the Pacific Ocean more than 100 km from the coast and at a depth of 17 km, the tremors were felt so strongly on land that people ran out into the street in a panic. A series of aftershocks followed. Izvestia collected eyewitness impressions of the seismic event.
"Everything fell off the shelves"
As Svetlana, a local resident, told Izvestia, during the earthquake in Kamchatka it was shaking very much, the walls rattled.
At the time of the seismological event, she was sitting in her office and heard a rumble, after which a sharp shaking began.
"I run out of the back room, there are customers sitting here. We all went outside. Everything fell off the shelves. It was shaking very hard, the walls were rattling," Svetlana noted.
The published footage shows the fall of goods from the shelves of the store, including drinks in glass bottles.
"We thought about how the operating table would not fall"
The Kamchatka doctors who operated on the cancer patient, whose video was posted online, explained to REN TV journalists why they did not interrupt the operation.
This was the first time she had encountered such an earthquake, as explained by the head of the second surgical department of the Kamchatka Regional Oncological Dispensary, Yana Gvozdeva. The tremors, she said, alternately intensified and faded, so it was scary.
"Duty comes first at work, and here we were not hindered by any fluctuations in the ground, tools, or equipment. We were doing our job," she stressed.
The doctor explained that there was no way to stop the operation. It was also dangerous to wake up a person who was under anesthesia.
"We thought about how the operating table would not fall, the patient would not jump out of our hands. It was really scary. If in such a situation the patient, God forbid, falls off the table, the consequences are enormous," explained Gvozdeva.
She added that there were five people in the brigade, "everyone grouped up, we were a team, we were in tandem, no one ran away."
Lyubov Tsyplakova, an oncologist at the Kamchatka Regional Oncological Dispensary, clarified that the operation was standard. The doctors were working when they "started shaking."
"I had no thoughts of running anywhere. Our anesthesiologist held all the equipment with his hands so that it would not fall anywhere, the nurse held the patient so that she would not fall off the table, fixed so that the instruments would not fly apart," Tsyplakova noted.
The head of Kamchatka, Vladimir Solodov, said in his telegram channel that he had instructed to prepare documents for submission to the state awards of doctors of the oncological dispensary.
"Such courage deserves the highest praise," he stressed, noting the professionalism of the staff and dedication.
"I grew up in Kamchatka, but I don't remember that"
The earthquake in Kamchatka and the subsequent tsunami destroyed the camp of the expedition "Eastern Bastion — Kuril Ridge" of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) on the Kuril island of Shumshu. Elena Poddubnaya, a member of the expedition, told Izvestia about the evacuation of people from the camp on July 30.
"I grew up in Kamchatka myself, and I don't remember such strong tremors. We understood that a wave could come, so we gathered all our personal belongings and put a man on the shore to monitor the water just in case. We took our passports, phones, cameras, and everything we needed, went to a height and watched from above as the first wave washed away our camp," Poddubnaya said.
According to the woman, the expedition members were promptly evacuated by the Ministry of Emergency Situations and placed in their camp. Rescuers gave the geographers warm clothes, fed, watered and warmed them up.
"We will spend the night here, and as soon as the situation stabilizes, the Ministry of Emergency Situations will allow us, we will go ashore to collect bags. There's a lot left lying there. When we left, we saw our belongings scattered in the grass on the shore. Some bags were recognized. Maybe we'll go look for it tomorrow," Poddubnaya said.
The expedition participant noted that they were unable to save many personal belongings and clothes, as they were primarily concerned about the safety of the equipment.
"Many thanks to the Ministry of Emergency Situations for bringing us dry clothes, everything from socks to jackets, because we have nothing left of our belongings. We were saving gear, equipment, cameras. Well, you can't take everything away. The main thing is that everyone is alive," Poddubnaya summed up.
"We will spend the night in a tent"
It was already late evening in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, but some residents decided not to return to their homes for fear of a repeat earthquake. They decided to spend the night in the park.
"We live on the fifth floor, you can't jump down from there, you can't run away, so I had to buy a tent. I can't remember how many years ago I became terrified of earthquakes and, by the way, began to anticipate them. We bought food here — sausage, sliced loaf, water, of course," the woman shared with REN TV. She plans to stay in the tent until tomorrow, but realizes that she will still have to return home.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
