May 12, 2008: Surviving the Wenchuan 8.0 Magnitude Earthquake

A 16-Year-Old Memory

On May 12, 2008, a devastating earthquake struck Wenchuan, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale and 8.3 Mw in moment magnitude, affecting vast areas across China and several Asian countries from Liaoning in the north to Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Vietnam in the south, and as far west as Pakistan.

By September 18, 2008, the catastrophe had claimed 69,227 lives, injured 374,643, and left 17,923 missing, marking it as the deadliest earthquake since the People’s Republic of China was established, surpassing even the infamous Tangshan earthquake in fatalities.

I was at the SAP Chengdu Research Institute located in the Tianfu Software Park, attending a meeting with the Form development team when the quake occurred.

We were discussing a PowerPoint presentation when suddenly everything started shaking. Ceilings crumbled, debris fell all around us, and in the midst of chaos, my colleague warned us to escape. The alarm blared as we made our orderly exit down the stairwell, the building still trembling as we reached safety outside.