Southeast student able to contact family, friends in China

When Chen Chen, a junior at Southeast Missouri State University, heard about the powerful earthquake in Yingxiu, in southwestern China's Sichuan province, the first call she made was to her mother in Beijing.

The second thing Chen made sure to do was get on the Internet and contact the friends and classmates she left behind at Sichuan Normal University, the school she attended before coming to Southeast as part of an international transfer program.

Sichuan University is not far from the disaster area created by the magnitude 7.9 temblor, but the campus didn't suffer extensive damage, Chen said. Se wasn't aware of any students who were injured.

The death toll from the earthquake could reach 50,000 once the debris clears, officials in central China have said.

"My classmates are really scared because it happened so suddenly and they weren't prepared," Chen said.

She said the university officials moved the students into the gym during the earthquake as a precautionary measure, but didn't have a specific earthquake plan in place.

She said she and her fellow classmates are well-accustomed to minor earthquakes in the region, but this is the first major one they've ever experienced.

Chen's mother, an elementary school teacher in Beijing, felt the ground shake a little, even though she was a good distance from the earthquake's epicenter, Chen said.

"She's glad I'm here, otherwise she would be very worried," Chen said.

Chen has spent the week since learning about the earthquake, staying in close contact with friends in the Sichuan region, and trying to help them stay calm and reassure them it will be OK, she said.

"I just feel helpless because I don't know what's going to happen," she said.

Her parents have assisted in donating money and supplies to the relief efforts in China, Chen said, but she doesn't know how she can help from Southeast Missouri.

"It's kind of sad," she said. "I don't know any organizations around here to help or make money for them."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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