The earthquake came suddenly and ended quickly. Ten seconds later, the shaking of the ground stopped.
Victoria and the other children hugged Ah Meow and the rest. For the first time, Ah Meng was afraid. He shrank his neck and hid in Ivana's arms. His little eyes were full of fear.
Li Du looked at his phone. There was still a signal. He was relieved. This proved that the earthquake had not affected him much.
Brother Wolf instructed everyone to hurry to the open area on the lawn and said, "If you feel the tremor again, immediately lie down and hold the hand of the person next to you …"
He instructed Big Quinn and Godzilla to clean up the buckets. "Check to see if the water supply has been cut off. Fill the buckets and bathtubs with water. If there is an aftershock, the water supply will be cut off."
Li Du called the government's public service department, but the line was busy and could not be reached.
The sirens of ambulances and fire trucks could be heard in the distance. There was a town to the west of where they were. It seemed like there were casualties and property damage in the town.
The construction quality of their villa was very good. Even the paint on the walls had not fallen off. However, after the horizontal waves appeared, some of the shelves in the house shook and the things on them fell.
Hans went online and shook his head. "There's a problem with the network. I can't log into the 4G network. The signal is very bad."
Li Du thought for a moment and then called the exclusive customer service of the * * * *. "Hello, I want to ask about the situation in Phoenix. Was there an earthquake just now?"
The other party quickly replied, "Yes, Mr. Li. According to the news we just received, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 in the southern desert area of Arizona. The exact situation is still unclear. The epicenter is about 40 kilometers away from Phoenix, in the desert area …"
There was nothing to complain about the quality of the service. The customer service gave Li Du a brief and clear account of the situation.
The damage caused by this earthquake should not be too great. The epicenter was in the desert area. They were only affected.
After introducing what they knew about the earthquake, the customer service representative gave Li Du a quick and concise introduction of earthquake knowledge.
This included the geology of Arizona, the causes, hazards, and assessment methods of local earthquakes, some measures to deal with earthquakes, and so on.
Customer service also transferred his call. They had contacted a local seismologist at the last minute to answer Li Du's questions and comfort him.
The other party first asked about Li Du's location and the condition of his house. After learning the location of his villa, the earthquake expert said that there was no problem with their house.
Li Du had not paid special attention to it before, but this seemingly sturdy villa was not made of brick and stone, but of wood. This kind of house was more resistant to earthquakes.
He told Li Du about the news he had received and told him not to panic. He told him to stay outside and not to drive away in a hurry. He told him to wait for further arrangements from the government. If he had any news, he would inform Li Du specifically.
The expert was being so responsible not because he was kind, but because he knew that Li Du was very powerful and wanted to take this opportunity to build a relationship with him.
Just like Brother Wolf, the expert told Li Du to quickly store water.
After every earthquake, the most serious problem for the residents was the problem of drinking water. Central Arizona had been short of water since ancient times. Water was drawn from the California Reservoir, the Colorado River, and underground water.
After the earthquake, no matter how much damage was caused to the water pipes, the water plant would shut down the water supply for maintenance in order to reduce the risk.
Therefore, they had to pay attention to water storage.
After this earthquake, there were a few more aftershocks. They were of a much smaller magnitude and could only be felt. The impact on the buildings was very small.
However, they did not manage to collect much water. Perhaps there was a problem with the water pipe from the beginning. Godzilla only managed to collect one bucket of water before the pipe stopped flowing.
Fortunately, for them, the problem of drinking water was not serious. There was a small river in front of the villa.
Li Du and Hans went to the river to have a look. The earthquake had also affected the river. The clear river had disappeared and the water had become muddy.
Brother Wolf came over to take a look and said, "No problem, as long as there is water."
He took a shovel and dug a hole in the sand by the river. Big Ivan cooperated with him and together they made a small channel. The river gurgled out.
At the two openings of the channel, Brother Wolf used gauze to screen out algae, garbage, and flotsam in the river.
In this way, the water that flowed into the sandpit was clearer, at least not as muddy and dirty as the river.
Brother Wolf wiped his sweat and said, "Let's carry water home and let the pit settle first. Only take a quarter of the water from the top and leave the bottom."
The phone signal did not improve. Instead, it gradually became worse.
At about two o 'clock in the afternoon, there was another strong earthquake. The house shook again and some glass was shattered.
Hans kept calling outside and finally got through. He did not know who he was calling, but when he put down the phone, he said with a grave expression, "Tonight we will spend the night in the yard. Tomorrow we will leave here and go north."
"What's wrong?" Li Du asked.
Hans said, "There will be more serious earthquakes later. This is just a preview of the big one."
Li Du said, "Don't scare me. Arizona is not in the earthquake zone. How could there be a big earthquake?"
"California is not in the earthquake zone either. Have you forgotten the damage caused by the 1994 earthquake? Oh, you were in China in 1994, "Hans retorted.
On January 17, 1994, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 occurred 35 kilometers northwest of Los Angeles.
It was a moderately strong earthquake with shocking economic losses. 62 people died, more than 9,000 were injured, 25000 people were homeless, more than 2,500 buildings were destroyed, and more than 4,000 were seriously damaged.
In addition, several freeways were damaged in many places, some overpasses collapsed, and 11 main roads leading to downtown Los Angeles and other areas were forced to close.
At that time, the earthquake caused power and water outages in most of the surrounding areas. About 40,000 residences had no water and 52,000 had no electricity. It was a serious disaster.
After taking care of the situation at home, Sophie wanted to go to the next town to see if there were any injured people in need of help. This was the most useful place for a surgeon like her.
Li Du stopped her and said firmly, "It was too chaotic during the earthquake. Don't go. We have paid so much tax to the government. These jobs should be the government's responsibility."
After the earthquake, the public security situation was very bad. Theft, robbery, and vandalism occurred frequently.
Sophie was also very stubborn in this regard. She held the cross hanging on her chest and said firmly, "This is my vocation, dear. If I give up my duty because of fear, God will not forgive me, and I will not forgive myself. I will never be able to look at a scalpel again."
In that case, what else could Li Du say? He waved his hand and let Godzilla and Brother Wolf protect Sophie. They were his two most powerful bodyguards.
At this time, he realized that his security force was not strong enough. He needed to hire more bodyguards.
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