Indonesian rescued after SMS to dad – Indonesia Earthquake
Posted on October 4, 2009 by by scoop
Johnson Chandra has been rescued after sending a SMS to his father, “Please help, I’m trapped, my position is in the house by the stairs.” Reuters
The 30-year-old and his wife were trapped  under the rubble of their house after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Padang, the capital of Sumatra, on Wednesday.
“The ground kept moving so I tried to run outside. Then I remembered that my wife was still on the second floor, and I turned around, heading to the stairs,”
“As soon as I stepped my foot on the first step, bricks rained on me, and I couldn’t stand, I was swaying, losing my balance. Within two seconds, the whole building crashed, the third floor became the first floor. Everything went dark then.”
Chandra tried to use his mobile phone to call people up family and friends but when he couldn’t get through to anyone he  thought about texting, “I texted my dad to let him know where I was” he said.
“Later I heard people coming. So I tried to make a sound. My wife kept shouting ‘help’, and I found a small nail and started banging it. They finally found me. Slowly they broke concrete around me, and I was later rescued 10 hours after the quake.”
