That’s good to know, @Rick.
Actually, I felt pretty safe in the building I’m in now. All we did was open the front door just to ensure we wouldn’t get trapped in case it got worse and the door frame buckled or whatever.
Seems like people in Lushan have not fared so well though, already 57 reported casualties from collapsing buildings etc. I guess that’s more rural, so the buildings would probably be older and/or crappier? I just hope the numbers don’t get too much worse.
Just as a general point, I think it’s also worth remembering that the Richter scale is a logarithmic one or whatever its called, meaning a 7.0 earthquake is 10 times worse than a 6.0, and an 8.0 is 100 times worse than a 6.0. So one more point on the scale is quite an increase in terms of seismic energy.
I’m not sure how safe I’d feel if there was an 8.0 with the epicenter in Chengdu, even in a brand new building. Let’s hope we never have to find out.