Rumble in the Jungle

A flag flies half mast in front of Costa Rica's Supreme Court. Just like it took me a few days to blog about the quake, it took Costa Rica's president a couple days to finally declare a state of emergency and begin an official national mourning period.

By now, many of you have heard about the earthquake that hit Costa Rica last week. I'm fine, thanks to those who have asked. I would have written more about it sooner, but, of course, working at a newspaper means that when there's a crisis, there's a lot of work. And then it was my first weekend in Costa Rica, so Avalon and I obviously went to the beach.

But I digress. Simply put, the earthquake was a surreal experience. At first it felt just like a large truck driving by, then things kept shaking... and shaking... and shaking. For some reason, the earthquake lesson that flashed into my head was to get under a sturdy door frame. Apparently the head editor at the Tico Times scrambled under his desk (which is the right thing to do) in about half a second. That must have been a sight...

While we were shaken up a bit, the office was entirely unscathed. Some parts of San Jose had small bits of damage, but I haven't seen much first hand. We did see scores of Ticos out in the streets for hours afterward, using the quake as a good excuse to take the rest of the day off. I would have, too, except when you're in the newspaper business, an earthquake means more work.

For the first day, I mostly helped out two of the staff reporters get updates online. The paper only comes out once a week, but we knew that with an event such as this that makes world news people were going to be interested. Then on Friday I worked on a short story about how the internet has completely transformed the way news of the quake broke. I know these stories are a bit cliche, but it was fascinating watching the dynamics on Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as people turned to the Web to share news and get info when traditional means, such as phone lines, were down after the quake. For now, part of my story is online here. The rest should be up Friday.

Today, I went up to a mall in Escazu, a slightly more well-off suburb of San Jose, to report on the earthquake's affects there. We had heard rumors that the place had been a mad house, with people panicking like crazy. Turns out that the rumors were mostly true. Several shopkeepers I talked to had stories about people dashing out of the Food Court, leaving their meals steaming at the table, taking no heed to the "don't panic" rule, and ignoring broken glass from windows and skylights. A man who worked in the movie theater even told me about some parents abandoning their kids in the frezy; he said he had to help the kids find their parents afterward.

That story's not out yet, and may not even be a story--some quotes may be fed into the larger earthquake piece, and some quotes may simply be part of a sidebar. This is my first real professional experience doing team coverage and it's been fun. Even if the couple hours I spent reporting at the mall turns into a paragraph or two that simply add color to the main story, then it's still worth it. I'll post more stories of mine when they come out, and keep checking The Tico Times for general updates.