Trapped under the rubble after an earthquake brought down the hotel she was staying in, Japanese aid worker Miyuki Konnai had more to worry about than her fear of the dark, but a "ray of light" from her laptop helped her survive the ordeal.
Konnai had come to Van, a city in the remote east of Turkey, along with other Japanese aid workers to help survivors of a major 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 23 that killed more than 600 people and left thousands of families homeless.
The Bayram Hotel where she was staying was so damaged by that quake that when a smaller 5.7 magnitude tremor struck on Wednesday night, the five-story building came tumbling down.
Konnai, a slightly built 32-year-old woman, was still conscious when she was dug out after waiting in the rubble for five hours.
"When I was waiting for the rescue team I kept telling myself, 'I cannot die here. I have lots of things I want to do in the future' ... (I kept) cheering myself up and waiting," she told Reuters at a hospital where she was taken for checks.
No comments:
Post a Comment