It was two o’clock when my life started to change.

It felt like I was stuck here for months, lying here set in stone.

“KOREY!” My mother cries.

I can hear her crying my name, but I just can’t get the words out of my mouth.

“KOREY! Where are you?”

I’m terrified, I can’t move, theres a tree on top of me,  I’m lucky that I survived. A tree this big could have killed me. I have two brothers, a three year old, named Zach, and a fifteen year old named Alex and I don’t know where they are.

I’m trying to yell, so my mom can find me as I’m slipping in and out of consciousness.

“Korey!! Honey!! Korey!!”

I hear my mom, but I have no energy left to make any sounds. I’m probably going to die, and I’m scared for my life right now. I hear muffling in the leaves, I hope it’s mom.

“Korey!”

My mom is getting closer. I can feel it. Why can’t I scream, or move? I begin to cry. I want to be with my family, laughing, playing, having a good time. I’m too young to die.

“Korey!”

She’s right beside me.

“Oh my goodness! Korey!” My mom cries.

My mom is trying to move the tree off me and moves it enough to get me out.

I have to stay awake. I have to be strong, for my mom.

“Honey, I can’t find Zach or Alex the earthquake has hurt a lot of people. I’ve looked everywhere, trying to find my babies thankfully I’ve found you. You need medical attention, The Red Cross is here helping. I need you to stay strong baby girl, everything will be alright.”

“Mom, you can’t leave me here, I want to help find Zach and Alex! Please! They're my brothers! MOM!!”

My mom is walking away.

“I need to find the boys,” She says.

She said the Red Cross will keep me safe.

“I love you Korey.”

“I love you too Mom.”

I’m at the hospital, I spot Alex across the room, and begin to cry, he comes to me, hugs me and kisses my forehead.

“Korey, when mom found me, she was in really bad shape. She had Zach in her arms, he was dead. Mom watched him take his last breathe, he was being crushed by a telephone pole. As she tried to cradle his tiny body, a tree branch gave way. I’m so sorry Korey, mom’s gone too. As the evening progressed we heard the nurses talking about the special news report, this earthquake only struck us in the West. The earthquake brought its worst to the west of the Cascades but caused damage as far away as Sacramento, California—and as distant from the worst-hit areas as Fort Wayne, Indiana, is from New York.”

“Korey, Zach and mom had their whole lives ahead of them, and now their gone. We’re going to live with Dad, the doctors have contacted him and he’s on his way.”

Months later, the earthquake was compared to the 1989 earthquake in  Loma Prieta, California. It killed sixty-three people, and caused about six billion dollars in damages. The Loma Prieta Earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 and Oregon’s was magnitude of 7.1 . It was estimated that thirteen thousand people died in the Cascadia Earthquake. An earthquake is estimated to have magnitude in mid-sevens. A minute long earthquake would be in the high sevens and a two minute quake would enter the eights and a  three minute quake would be in the high eights . By four minutes, the earthquake would have already hit magnitude of 9.0, the Full-margin rupture would have happened, and the region would have suffered the worst natural disaster in the entire history of North America.

Our lives will never be the same without my mother and little brother. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of them and miss them. We are doing well living with my dad but at night when I lay down to sleep, I dream of Mama and my baby brother. We are all laughing and playing the way it was suppose to be. I dream until I wake, and with tears streaming down my face I realize they are both gone and never coming back..