Earthquake Survivor

The earthquake in China was so powerful it was felt hundreds of miles from the epicenter where a group of UNL students were studying abroad.
Waves spill water over the banks of a what was a calm pond of water just seconds before and people spilling out of buildings screaming earthquake.
That was the scene that welcomed Morrel Wax to China.
It took less than two minutes to kill nearly 70-thousand people and injure several times that number.

"I started jumping up and down on the bridge like Rocky, a Rocky moment and my classmates were like stop shaking the bridge" said Mo abroad program's student.

Turns out that shaking bridge was from an earthquake that rocked the country the first day 30 Lincoln students arrived in China as part of a study abroad program.

Mo's friend Kent shot video just moments after the quake from his digital camera - video that hit national airwaves.
"To see the water shaking underneath the bridge was just crazy to feel the magnitude of the earthquake and seeing the reaction to it. You know there was a lot of stunned faces and people are like oh my God," said Wax.
Mo says he had no idea just how devastating the earthquake was.

"At that moment when you felt the earthquake it didn't feel that big and until we got home, mail, the computers and news it wasn't a joking matter, it was scary."
News of the disaster quickly hit Lincoln's campus.

"We worked with both students from engineering and college of business with international affairs to be sure we contacted the parents and let them know we heard from the students all were safe and everything was continuing as normal," says UNL's Dr. D'Vee Buss.

She says all the students were about 400 miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake.
"We knew pretty quickly that our students were pretty safe."Mo says there were aftershocks for several days.
People who were too scared to sleep inside the buildings camped outside.
"There were camps of tents everywhere on the campus so I think a lot of people were on edge."
Mo says he lived a piece of history and learned a life lesson outside of the classroom.

"The next day people were out there in that area willing to help and the love those people showed for their fellow people was amazing and it was a beautiful thing," says the college senior.

Mo says the next day, the campus there organized blood drives and collected money to help with the relief efforts.
He says he's never experienced anything like it.

For some of the students they didn't necessarily know it was an earthquake at first.
Mo says they were told to put a water bottle on the edge of their desks to let them know if there was an aftershock to wake them up and get out of the buildings.
Mo says after the first couple, he slept right through one of them.
He says it's one trip he'll never forget, a story he plans to tell his kids and grandkids someday.

Reference: www.kptm.com