Buildings collapsed as NC woman vacationing in Morocco survived deadly earthquake

Charlotte resident Meghan Huffman was vacationing in Marrakech, Morocco, when a “terrifying shaking of the room” awakened her late Friday.

A rare and powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the city and surrounding areas, killing more than 2,000 people, and the death toll could rise as rescuers search for survivors, The Associated Press reported. It was the biggest earthquake to hit the North African country in 120 years.

“I started to panic, as I was still a bit asleep and never experienced an earthquake before,” Huffman told The Charlotte Observer in an email Saturday. “I initially thought the hotel was under attack — sirens were going off, the shaking went on for several minutes, but felt like hours.”

Huffman said she heard people outside the hotel screaming as glass broke and frames fell off the walls of her room.

Marrakech is the main city of central Morocco and the first of the country’s four imperial cities, according to Britannica. Huffman was staying near the ancient section of the city known as the medina, designated a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in 1985.

“I had to get myself together,” she said.

Huffman is a 34-year-old senior director of digital health at Novant Health. She told the Observer she travels often, and Morocco was the 77th country she’s visited.

Her immediate thoughts as her hotel room rumbled: “What did I need? What should I put on? Where are the valuables?”

“Finally I got dressed and threw a bag of things together and left the room,” she said.

Outside her hotel room

She encountered halls and stairs “flooded with people evacuating” — everyone still unsure what happened.

“I went out to the front of the hotel and saw the streets flooded with scared people,” she said. “Some kind American tourist saw the concern in my face and welcomed me with their group.”

Her panic calmed when she learned of the quake. She called her family to let them know she was safe.

After an hour, everyone was let back into the hotel, but fire alarms sounded 30 minutes later, she said.

Buildings around them were collapsing.

Fights over cushions erupted when everyone went to the pool area of the hotel, to stay safely away from the building in case it collapsed, she said.

She looked around and saw everyone from the hotel “laying on pool chairs, the ground, the grass, everywhere,” she said. “We had little to zero information. It was surreal. I was alone. Finally, around 4 a.m. I fell asleep.”

‘Terror to oasis’

Even more surreal, she said, was how life around her immediately returned to normal.

She woke up around 8 a.m. “and it was like mummy’s arising from the pool area in the sunlight,” she said. “The hotel staff started to make breakfast and clean up the area. It was like a flip of a switch — from terror to oasis.”

The pool was a pool again, she said. “Life is going on as if we didn’t just experience an earthquake and people weren’t/aren’t dying.”

“I think I’m most shocked that the streets and hotel were all full of terror in Marrakech less than 12 hours ago and now, it’s as if things are just ‘normal,’” Huffman said.

Struggle to reach remote areas

At least 2,012 people were confirmed dead by Saturday evening, according to the AP. Huffman said flags were flying at half-staff to mourn those lost in the quake.

Huffman said a number of people in Marrakech chose to sleep in parks or other green space because “they are scared to stay in their homes.”

“My driver this morning said he and his family slept near the airport because they are so worried their homes will collapse,” Huffman said.

An AP update just before 5 p.m. Saturday said, “The devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks in similar ways: homes folding in on themselves and mothers and fathers crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.”