16yr Annivarsary Of The Armenian Earthquake

[Mags]

Decemeber 7, 1988 Armenia was hit with a 6.9 earthquake, killing over 50,000 people and leaving a million homeless, 2/3 of the deaths were children.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this earlier...I'm sure some of you were effected by this tragedy wether directly or indirectly.

Share your stories here.

[Tigranes]

Many of my family members left for Armenia to help as volunteers and took me with them. After the rescue efforts were finished we were helping refugees settle in the trailors. I was about 11 so don't remember much, but I burned my face slightly trying to light one of those kerosene heaters. I also remember the smell of the recovered bodies from the rubble. Food was a problem too, my uncle was handing out mandarins...

Photos: http://www.butovo.com/~dimula/foto_spitak/index.html

[Mags]

Wow...interesting pictures...this one stood out the most

[HyeJinx1984]

Can't say I knew anyone who was affected, still heartbreaking. Whenever I hear about Armenians in any sort of pain, even if I've never met them, I feel like it happened to a member of my family.

[Inna]

My family and I moved to Leninakan (Gyumri) after fleeing Baku. We didnt actually move there, we were put there, it was one of the cities that had refugees from Baku. All in all, I was there, I dont remember anything, and my parents dont like talking about it much. All I ever got out of them was that there was a man that was working on the house that had been given to us by the government, he apparently saved my life as well as my sisters lives because he quickly grapped us and ran out of the house when he felt the building shake. The tragic part is he saved us, but my parents later found out that he lost his entire family (wife and kids) during the earthquake. That day was also the day my sisters were supposed to start school, but my mom wanted to wait till the next day so we could settle in, thank goodness she waited, because almost all the kids that died that day died because they were in school. Also on that day my dad started his first job, he told me that a few minutes before the earthquake hit he went outside to have a smoke, minutes later the enitre building collapsed and there were few surviviors. Thinking about this is really emotional because I know that I was there, although I dont remember it. Makes you realize that life is a blessing.

[xBaron Dants]

Uph....Your story gave me goosebumps Inna.

I was only two years old when it happened, and lived in Syria, so I obviously do not remember anything. All I know is that my parents sent whatever they could, from flour and sugar to toys and clothes, and my grandmother with the other ladies from AGBU started a fond called "Kez hamar Hayastan" or something like that. From what my parents have told me, she was very active in raising funds and material donations for the earthquake zone.


Heroo ella...

[Anonymouse]

I was about 6 or 7 years old when the earthquake occured. Strangely, we had already sold our house and we were set to fly to America, which we did 2 days after the earthquake. During it, we were staying at my grandmothers apartment, which was one of those many high rise apartment projects built during the Soviet projects, and we were I believe on the 10th floor. My grandmother is a heavy set old lady so she's not very mobile. When the earthquake struck, it was scary. I have yet to feel anything as powerful, not even the Northridge quake. I remember when it struck, my mom yelled at me and my brother to run downstairs quickly. And boy did we run. We didn't even look back. My mother stayed up there with my grandmother trying to help her, but she told us to run. And we ran down the stairs as fast as we could. Luckily nothing happened, but if it were to collapse, my grandmother and mother would have perished in the time that it took them to come out of the building. Those stupid Soviet buildings were never built well, but then again that's good ole Communist efficiency.

[ckBejug]

I remember we were in elementary school and Mekhitarian and all the other Armenian schools did a night to collect money and we sang the song "Kez hamar, nor karoon ge ka, yev baytsar ge shogha norits, etc.." I wish I remembered all the words. It is a great song and gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

[spiral]

We arrived in the U.S on September of 88, so I wasn't there when it happend, and I don't remember much of the time.

But I do remember that later on there was a lot of talk about the earthquake being "artificially" created. I even remember my Armenian teacher telling us about it.

Heres some stuff I just searched for.

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/Azgaser/conspiracy.html

What do you guys think about this conspiracy theory?

[Harut82]

I was in school too when it happend. Except I was in yerevan. The tables started shaking and the door was banging. We all got up ans started running out while the earthquake was happening. I had no idea what an earthquake was so I was very scared and conused.