Middle East OFWs relive Iran quake experiences via social media

By , GMA NEWS
As a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Iran and Pakistan border on Tuesday, overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East took to social media to relate their experiences and express their fears. According to the 2011 stock estimate of the Commission on Filipino Overseas, there are about 2.987 million Filipinos residing in the Middle East.
 
“Natakot ako kasi first time ‘yun [lindol na maramdaman] dito,” Queency Encabo-Abad, 30, told GMA News Online via Facebook.
 
“Ang lakas [ng lindol]… nasa 7th floor kami nagmemeeting tapos lahat kami pinababa,” the cost consultant in Abu Dhabi said. “After 30 minutes pinabalik kami ng office para kunin ‘yung mga gamit tapos pinauwi na kami.”
 
Some OFWs posted photos of the evacuations at the UAE:

Jinky Baldeviso, an OFW also working in Abu Dhabi, felt the tremor and was subsequently sent home.
 
“I went down running twice from 17th floor using the stairs because of earthquake... now my legs are shaking. Thank God we reached the ground safely,” she said in a Facebook post.
 
“Normal naman ang situation after 15minutes kaya mostly sa mga empleyado [ay] umakyat ulit dahil siguro may gagawin pa… pero after 10 to 15 minutes nag-alarm ang fire alarm ng building. Tumawag kami sa security ng building sinabihan kami na bumaba kasi baka may after shock pa ulit… Pinauwi na rin [kami],” Baldeviso, who works as a secretary at an engineering firm, told GMA News Online.
 
She noted that this was not her first earthquake. Baldeviso noted that exactly a week earlier, they felt a “shaking” on the ground.
 
News site Emirates 24|7 confirmed that it was the second time in April that an earthquake shook the United Arab Emirates. A person unidentified only as Lesley was quoted by the news site as saying the Tuesday earthquake was stronger that the earlier tremor. 
 
However, YouScooper @amore_vl thought differently.

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