"Ceci, wake up. It's an earthquake!" That's what Cecilia Wallace heard her mother shouting on the early morning of February 27th. Cecilia is a 7th-grader. She, her parents and her brother, Sam, were in Chile's capital city, Santiago, the day a big earthquake hit Chile. And like just about everyone else, they were shaken out of their sleep. "It was so frightening," Sam wrote. "The shaking was so huge that I will never go on a ride again." Cecilia and Sam wrote about their earthquake experiences. Their reports were later posted on the website. Cecilia, Sam and their parents were staying in an apartment on the 15th floor of a building. They were lucky. Their building stayed standing, because it was built to withstand earthquakes. Not everyone was as lucky as the Wallace family. More than 800 people died. Many older buildings fell down during the earthquake. The damage in Santiago wasn't as bad as in other parts of Chile. So the supermarkets were open for business on the morning of the quake. But it wasn't business as usual. "The supermarkets have been crazy with people rushing to buy their food for the next while," Sam wrote. Not everyone was able to get money to buy food that morning. So Cecilia and Sam made food bags to _ to people who were begging outside the supermarket. "We gave some to a kid of my age. I made sure he got cookies and bread." Sam and Cecilia's mother wrote that the kids also collected money for the Red Cross. It's certainly an experience Cecilia, Sam and their parents will never forget. Thankfully, they lived to tell their stories. What was Cecilia doing when the earthquake happened?
Walking in the street. Having class at school. Sleeping in bed. Playing with Sam in a park.