And as if a crash weren't enough....Quake shakes Papua New Guinea

As we still convulse in sadness over the Madang plane crash, some of the tremors felt this afternoon were actually caused by an earthquake somewhere (I think?) in the Owen Stanley Range.

The CNN story below was emailed to me from a friend in India who had just seen it on CNN's website and wanted to ask how we were. I said, fine--you must be thinking of the plane crash? He wrote--No, an earthquake, but sorry about the crash too.

By the CNN Wire Staff

October 14, 2011 -- Updated 0442 GMT (1242 HKT)

(CNN) -- A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rattled Papua New Guinea early Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake was centered about 200 miles north-northeast of Port Moresby and had a depth of 28 miles.

No tsunami warning was issued, according to the Tsunami Warning Center.

Papua New Guinea is on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

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Social media. This morning fb was crackling with news on the survivors, the plane site, who, when where, as none of the major papers could get to press in time and the radio kept repeating an abc news story from last night. Tweets and posts from the recovery team on the ground in Rai Coast and the hospital in town worked like a phone tree in days of yore, alerting families and friends everywhere. It brought food to the families waiting at the haus morata at Modilon Hospital, and called in others to sit with kids/pick up relatives/prepare mattresses while some rushed to be with the grieving, in classic PNG style.

Families wait.

The crash site in Markum.

The lone surviving passenger, a Chinese businessman, who suffered burns.

DWU students wait last night. Today we learned the five of their fellow students perished in the crash.

I want to call attention to the staff at the hospital, namely irene Topagal, who works for the CEO, and who has been on the scene all morning, was there through much of last night, and is still helping organize families and personnel in this horror story.

Below is Nancy Dui, from Amele and Rai Coast, who arrived with buiscuits and water for the families donated from Abel computers.

Martin Tsang donated water bottles, Globe gave cartons of water, Madang Butchery gave water, and Gala also brought water. They won't be thirsty. Joyce Rainbubu, Franceis Akuani, Sharon Samor, Bernard Yake and Chris Dominic of Nancy Sullivan and Assoc all brought biscuits, water, mattresses and in the afternoon a big pot of hot chicken stew for the staff and families (I am so proud of them).

Most poignant to me was seeing Maria Mosusu sitting at the Haus Morata today, having made it to work at Brian Bell in town, only to be told that her sister and her sister's kids had all gone down in the flight. She fainted, then found her way to the hospital where DWU staff brought some of the families to the campus for grief counselling.

Our hearts go out to everyone.