In the Middle of a Crisis

I went to Marrakech together with a former student, it was our first visit to Morocco. We were watching a Moroccan show outside of the hotel restaurant on Friday 8th September when the ground started shaking. It took a second for everybody to realise what was happening. At first, I thought it was from the loud music but within a second it got much stronger and the whole ground was swaying; glasses began smashing and falling off tables, big groups of birds in the trees took off and I realised that it was an earthquake.

As we turned to run away from the buildings, I saw a cloud of dust coming from the top of the restaurant. We were very lucky to have already been outside and got away quickly to the grass. The ground was shaking very violently for about twenty seconds.

It was confirmed to be 6.8, which I knew from geography was a high magnitude event. It was 11:11pm when it happened and we stayed waiting on the grass, unsure of what was going to happen next.

There was a forecast for a large aftershock at 1am and we were waiting in the open space on the grass for it to hit, but thankfully it did not come.

As there had not been such a large earthquake in that region in 120 years, the rescue workers themselves were unsure of exactly what to do and such a large earthquake like this was not really expected.

The Moroccans we had met and spoken to before and after the earthquake had been very kind and friendly people, so it was very sad to see this happen to their country.

Please remember the people of Morocco in your prayers and thoughts.

Isabella we are thankful that you are safe and wish you well in the future.

A prayer in Times of Natural Disasters

Lord, please be with the rescue workers and keep them safe as they make heroic efforts in dangerous situations to rescue those in trouble. Lord, please be with everyone waiting to be rescued, keep them safe, and bring help to them soon.