Earthquake in China [Update]

UPDATE:

My mom has took her mobile phone with her to China! Yaaaaay!! But unfortunately I have no luck raising her on the phone. So I went back to find out which agency she booked her package with. I searched high and low for the invoice and stuff but can’t find it, but fortunately, my mother has passed me the AIG Global Travel Insurance ‘booklet’ which has the chop of the travel agency on it. And she called back at 22:31hrs.

So Anyway, I had googled and found the website of the agency and look through the tour packages. Since my mother took the 9 days tour package with my aunts, I checked the itinerary and discovered that on day 3 my mother should be now quite some distance away in Zhangjiajie (张家界) [See map below]. (Ya, beat me up for not having the contacts of my cousins and my aunts as well. My mistake for failing to be close to the maternal side of my family.)

I hope am glad the agency is following the itinerary closely, as I continue to feel burdened by my failure to contact my mother. I am going to call the travel agency tomorrow morning to find out if they are in contact with their guides over in China.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my relatives over there. Please keep them in prayers until I receive confirmation of them being safe and sound in China their return to Singapore, as after shocks are expected in China.

Richter Scale 7.8 Earthquake in China

An earthquake of scale 7.8 hit Wenchuan prefecture (汶川县) in China’s Sichuan province (四川省) at 14:28 today. According to the news services in China, the tremors are felt as far as Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Nan-ning, Hanoi, Taipei and even Bangkok.

The current situation is unknown. I have tried to call the Singapore Consulate in Chengdu to no avail. Meantime, my mother is in that region and uncontactable because she did not bring her mobile. I hope she is safe as she should now be further away from Chengdu (成都) and more towards the Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟) region. I undertand that region is mountainous so I am quite concerned with the possibility of landslides.

Brothers- and sisters-in-Christ, please keep my mother, aunts and uncles who are in that area in prayer until they are safe. (I thank all of you, for sharing this burden with me.)

Will update when I get more information. A rough map of the epicenter here: