Wednesday Earthquake Update

The most recent news from my apartment here in Chengdu is the water should be going off sometime today for an indefinite period of time. I heard beforehand from two of my Chinese friends (who get a lot more news through the text message chain than me) that we should go stock up on water because it had been announced on television that a chemical plant exploded today (hearsay) and that that might cause water shortages in the next few days. Then it was announced outside my building. I have to admit, I didn't understand most of the message, though. It was garbled through a megaphone, my Chinese is still poor, and I was 17 floors up, but they said something about water. So there.
I went and dutifully stocked up, but the stores were already sold out of drinking water, so people were just buying drink boxes, Pepsi, milk, whatever they liked and was available. I went for bottles of sweet jasmine tea and grapefruit juice.
It's a beautiful sunny day. The water is still on, for now. I feel stocked up and calm - happy, really. Rescue efforts are continuing in the nearby counties. If you want to help (not me, obviously, the people in Beichuan 北川 and Wenchuan 汶川 counties) you should donate to the Red Cross, as they're the NGO leading the aid charge for the moment.

Love,
Matthew