Earthquake in China: Out of the Darkness
5/6/202655 min
Maayan Sebbag is living and studying in Chengdu, China. One day, on a trip to a remote nature reserve, disaster strikes. Passing through a village nestled in the mountains, Maayan and her friend suddenly find themselves at the epicentre of a terrible natural disaster - a magnitude 8 earthquake that will go down as one of the deadliest in human history. Trapped in the pitch black, buried alive, Maayan will fight to free herself from this living tomb. But escaping burial will prove just the beginning… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Rhys Bevan | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at support@noiser.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsJohn Hopkins· Host0:00
[thunder] It is Monday, May the 12th, 2008, around 2:30 in the afternoon. In the mountains of the Sichuan province of China, about an hour and a half's drive from the city of Chengdu, the sky is threatening rain. Dark clouds build to a smudgy, low canopy. The atmosphere is thick and heavy. A storm is brewing. Beneath the gathering gloom, a rural village stands amongst the vastness of nature. On any normal day, this small settlement in Wenchuan County has a steady, peaceful rhythm. The ambient rush of its central river underscores the songs of a thousand tropical birds, from the caw caw of the golden pheasant to the intricate trilling of the Chinese rubythroat. Over this calming orchestra, the sounds of village life serve as grace notes, mere additions to the glorious wilderness. It's a place surrounded on all sides by emerald mountains, nestled in plant life, at ease with itself. Today, however, the scene could not be more different, and not just because of the ominous clouds overhead. The village lies in ruins, roads ripped open, power lines twisted and torn, the earth itself ruptured under buildings reduced to rubble. And