Gwynne Cocks left her home of more than eight years in China to come to her childhood home of Arcata for a summer visit. While Cocks was visiting family in Arcata, her hometown of Chengdu was shook by the worst earthquake to hit China in three decades (according to reports from Scientific American, www.sciam.com).

“The hardest-hit area is the city of Mianyang, where more than 7,000 have been confirmed killed out of a population of more than five million,” reported Scientific American. Mianyang is the city Cocks will be moving to when she returns to China in July. She plans to go there to study the Chinese language, and she has many friends and co-workers in the city now. “The city wasn’t damaged as much as the outlying areas,” said Cocks, whose friends have visited the rural areas and are working to get out there to help.

Cocks is corresponding with her friends daily via e-mail. She said most of her American friends are from the West Coast and are familiar with earthquakes.

“My friends have helped locals, talking them through it, because they’ve been through it before.”

“I have friends who I worked with there and they are working together with the Chinese people to go out into the countryside to help aid workers with translation and looking for people.”

From e-mails Cocks is getting from her friends, she said the Chinese people are still very scared, and the hardest hit places are inaccessible by road. She said the Chinese military is sending in paratroopers to provide relief in those areas.

Ray Wang is the Dean of the University Library at Humboldt State University, and served as Dean of Humboldt College in Xian (HSU’s sister school in China). Wang’s mother, 78 years old, still lives in Xian and she felt the earthquake. Xian is about 400 miles away from the epicenter. Wang said his mother said her couch was shaking and she had never felt anything like it in her life. Wang said people died in Xian because of earthquake-related accidents.

“This earthquake is a big one and has been felt all the way across the country.”

“It’s mayhem in those areas. There are blocks and really bad conditions. Every three kilometers, there would be major damage on the highway and all the bridges were collapsed. Soldiers tried to get there on food. They still haven’t reached the epicenter,” said Wang.

“China, unlike Myanmar is welcoming any relief efforts.”

While Wang thinks it would be a good idea to organize some local relief efforts things are still very uncertain.

“We are trying to find out what we can do. At this point people are still in shock and it’s very hard to get a phone (call) through.” His daughter is in the Shanghai area, “It took me hours to get through to her. The communication is not good at this point.”

Cocks said: “For me, it’s kind of weird not being there. A lot of the Americans I work with over there are ready to help. They know how to communicate with the locals. They will be helping them until they need no more help. If I were there, I would be helping them the same way. (I would do) whatever I could, translating, or talking with them, or taking them into my house.”

Cocks grew up in Arcata and graduated from Arcata High in 1994 and went to College of the Redwoods. She moved to China in 1999, and is still learning Chinese. Though she can communicate with people about most subjects, she doesn’t consider herself fluent yet.

While Cocks might feel the need to be in China helping out, her sister, Paula Cocks, is very grateful Gwynne was here.

“I’m a little freaked,” said Paula. “Even though she was home, I was like ‘Holy crap! She could have been there.’ I was really scared, not just for her, but for her friends and everyone that she knows.” The event inspired Paula to write her Spanish final for HSU on the importance of family.

“I knew that family is important but it made me realize they could be gone the next day.”