Quake survivors at 315 Happiness Road

updated 6:07 p.m. ET May 15, 2008

DUJIANGYAN, China - Tang Xiaomin had just left her fourth-floor apartment to buy groceries when the building started to crumble around her.

An upstairs neighbor was thrown against the kitchen table. She grabbed her purse and rushed out. Another resident, pregnant and resting, didn't have time. She became trapped.

The three occupants of the six-story apartment building at 315 Happiness Road were just some of the residents who managed to survive Monday's massive earthquake, although many of their neighbors did not. They endured moments of terror, shock, relief and now worry as they try to rebuild their lives.

"It's hard to take because we never, ever experienced anything like this before," said the short, slender Tang, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and standing in front of a shelter of plastic sheets, umbrellas and bamboo poles she now calls home.

'Property loss is just huge'
Tang, 40 and unemployed, had moved into the newly built apartment 10 years ago, using compensation awarded when the government demolished her former home as part of China's urban renewal boom. The apartment was home to her and her husband, a construction worker, their 16-year-old son, who was at school when the quake struck, and Tang's 61-year-old mother.

The mother was alone in the apartment when the temblor hit. Hours later, rescuers eased her through a gap in the apartment's facade and down to the street below.

The family of four spent Monday night camped under an umbrella in a chilly drizzle, numb from both the cold and their ordeal — but relieved to be alive and together.

"The property loss is just huge, but the people are safe and that's all that matters," Tang said in her sing-songy Sichuan accent.

Covered in dust
Neighbor Luo Ying was one flight upstairs from Tang, in a fifth-floor apartment, when the building began shaking at 2:27 p.m.

The department store clerk remembers chunks of tile and cement crashing all around her as she scrambled down five flights of stairs with her neighbors.

"I was covered in dust when I got to the bottom. I didn't dare believe it," she said.

Seeking shelter from the rain, Luo and her neighbors scavenged a canopy from an electronics store promotional event and piled old signboards high with salvaged blankets.

By dusk, about five hours after the quake, police and military units arrived, bringing relief, Luo said, "We knew we weren't alone and that someone would help."

Her husband has taken her daughter to the provincial capital of Chengdu while she remains near the apartment building, watching the rescue teams that clear away rubble and look for bodies with backhoes, cranes and hand tools.

MORE FROM ASIA-PACIFIC

Asia-Pacific Section Front

Flood in China coal mine traps 23 people China points to flaws in school collapses World markets plunge after U.S. sell-off Drug-addicted elephant kicks heroin habit Karma? Bug eviction ends with blazing temple Asia-Pacific Section Front   Add Asia-Pacific headlines to your news reader: