The tremors of the massive earthquake in Indonesia were felt in the city causing people in the top floors of apartments and high-rise buildings in some areas to flee on Wednesday.
Alarmed by tremors apartment dwellers rushed out in panic on to the streets in Ayodhyanagar, Muthyalampadu, Satyanarayanapuram, Machavaram, Poranki and adjoining areas.
The residents of Indira Enclave in Ayodhyanagar rushed out of their homes once the buildings began to quake. “I was sleeping, while my wife was having lunch and my son studying for his examination. My wife woke me up and the bed was shaking. The utensils on the dining table were also moving. We all rushed downstairs at 2.23 p.m.,” said a resident of the flats. “After a while we went back, but ran out again when a second tremor shook the building at 4.15 p.m.,” he said.
“I was having lunch when chair moved away from the table. I pulled it close to the dining table and resumed eating and the chair moved away again due to a second tremor,” said the resident of an apartment block on G.S.Raju Road describing his comical experience.
“The sofa I was sitting on began to shake. I thought somebody was shaking it from behind. But when I looked back there was nobody.
Even then it didn't strike me it was a tremor. I made the connection only after seeing the television,” said a resident of Sitarampuram indicating the very mild tremor she experienced.
High drama
There was high drama in front of Indira Residency in Muthyalampadu when a couple of vernacular television channels reported that the apartment had developed cracks and the residents were being evacuated. Those living in these flats came out like others and went back, but the videographers gave a different version.
People living in neighbouring houses also went into a tizzy seeing the reports in the television channels. The residents of the apartment told The Hindu that there were no cracks on their building and they were not being evacuated. An old crack in the apartment compound wall was shown in the false reports, they said.
The inaccurate report had a comic outcome with the apartment dwellers saying in a statement they were fine and that the relatives should not panic.
The district Collector S.A.M. Rizvi alerted all the officials along the sea coast and alerted people to vacate houses if a tsunami warning was issued.
