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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Vancouver Sun
Within hours — or in some cases, minutes — of the earthquake that shook central Canada on June 23, a cottage industry popped up online, full of people looking to capitalize on the shaky afternoon.
Less than an hour after the 5.0-magnitude tremors subsided, someone had created a T-shirt design declaring "I survived the 2010 Ottawa earthquake," which was selling for $26.50 from CustomInk.com.
And although the epicentre of the quake was located just north of Ottawa, Torontonians seemed to want to stake a claim, too.
Another T-shirt design emblazoned with, "I survived Toronto earthquake 2010" appeared on Zazzle.com soon after the Ottawa version. Spacing, an urban landscape magazine in Toronto, also swiftly whipped up "I survived the quake!" buttons featuring the image of a trembling CN Tower, selling them for $2 through PayPal online and at a handful of bricks-and-mortar businesses in Toronto.
In Ottawa, Dylan Armstrong was napping in a chair when the quake hit and woke him up. His father turned panicky after the trembling stopped, he says, and within "about 20 minutes," the experience spawned a new Facebook group.
"I updated my Facebook status just to tease my dad," says Armstrong, 18.
"My dad said, 'I survived the earthquake of 2010' and that was my new status, and then one of my friends said, 'Dylan, that should be a Facebook group.' "
Through the afternoon, the recent high school grad watched, amazed, as about four new people joined every minute, and by 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the group had drawn nearly 300 members.
"Everyone wants to be able to give their two cents about something," Armstrong says, laughing. "I don't really plan to do anything with it; it was more just a joke on my dad."
"In my whole life, I have never been sober and watched my house move," one member wrote on the group's page. "It was an experience."
The quake was also immortalized on Wikipedia within half an hour of the tremors. Initially, the "2010 Central Canada earthquake" page contained only the sketchiest details and links to a couple of news articles, but the creator also threw in a few dramatic flourishes: "A Canadian dodo, located in Ontario, texted his friends in case they were worried about him," the page read. "They were not." That part of the entry was swiftly deleted.
On the web:
Link to the Toronto earthquake T-shirt: www.zazzle.ca/i—survived—toronto—earthquake—2010—tshirt-235881067103972311
The Ottawa earthquake T-shirt: www.customink.com/designs/tshirt/fwx0-000e-xeff/hotlink? cm—mmchotlink-—-1-—-Body—txt-—-button1
The Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010—Central—Canada—earthquake
The Facebook group: www.facebook.com/?reflogo#!/group.php? gid129524483747626&refts
The buttons: http://spacingtoronto.ca/2010/06/23/we-made-i-survived-the-quake-buttons/
