Earthquake (again).. This Time: Padang

At the end of September 2009, Indonesia was shaken again. An earthquake of 7.6 (in Richter Magnitude Scale) hit Sumatera Barat province (or well-known as West Sumatra), and made huge damages on Padang, Pariaman and places nearby. It was not the first time West Sumatra hit by earthquake. Solok District for example, were hit several times before, and also made damages to that district. However, this earthquake was very terrible because so many people dies, hurt, and losing their family. There were more than 1.100 people counted die in this disaster so far (until this article were published, and it might increase). -according to Kompas.Com-

Why do I make a note for this earthquake? Well, there are several (emotional) reasons behind this writing. Firstly, it reminds me to the earthquake that hit my hometown -Yogyakarta- on the "wonderful" Saturday, 27 May 2006 at around 05:57 in the morning. I still can feel it now... the shaking, the panic, the desperation, felt that I would be losing my parents (who lived with me) at once, felt like facing the death, etc. And after that, I still can remember the feeling of being isolated, no electricity, no news, no phone network, low-bat cellphone battery without electricity to charge it, no fuel and not know where to find, sleeping outside because the house were not safe although it were not so damage. I felt that I had some money, but they were useless :-) After all, I didn't know for how long we have to face that condition. At that time, I remembered the news of tsunami in Aceh, remembered the victims. I just felt like them that time. hufff... That vision is still so obvious until today. Although finally now I know that I still have my parents (because all of us were safe in that disaster), we could find the solution to charge our cellphone's batteries and can contact our family/relatives, few the gas stations operated normally, and some other solutions, but who knew those "blessing" conditions before :-) When I looked around after the earthquake, then I knew that the overall damage was so.. so... so terrible and horrible. So many people died (around 5000 people), many houses and buildings are collapsed. Hospitals were so full of patients and corpses. There were so many funerals, that only attended by the family because their neighbours were also holding funeral for their own families.

The other reason why I wrote this note is because somehow Padang has a special place in my heart. First time I went there because I was assigned by my company at that time to handle some projects. Several times I came to Padang, I found that Padang and also the cities nearby have an exotic landscape, culture and culinary. I even thought and imagined that someday I will have a honeymoon around Padang and Bukittinggi ^_^ ... And there are several reasons that I cannot describe it in words why I feel so close to this city (and the province)

Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raaji'un (Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return). May Allah bless people there in this disaster, I hope that they will recover soon. I pray for people who dies in this disaster will be die as a syahid and their families who still live will be given strength to face and continue this hard life.

**Laa yukallifullaahu nafsan illaa wus'ahaa - Allah will not give any burden unless (He know) we are able to handle it (Al Qur'an 02:286)

**Innallaaha ma 'ash-shaabiriin - Surely Allah is along with patient people (Al Qur'an 02:153)

* My condolence also for victims in earthquake (again) of 7.0 magnitude that hit Sungai Penuh District in Jambi province (1 October 2009 at 08:52)