32. The People of Tangshan Experienced Strange Phenomena and Omens Before a Tragic Disaster
Tangshan, a coal mining and industrial city, is about 70 miles east of Beijing. In late July, 1976, people in and around the city began noticing that there was some weird stuff going on. Chicken refused to eat. Rats were spotted running in panicked packs in daylight. The water level in wells rose and fell. On the evening of July 27th, and through the early morning hours of the 28th, fireballs and flashes of colored lights were seen.
While such phenomena were strange, people still had lives to live and work to do. So in the wee morning hours of July 28th, 1976, most of Tangshan’s residents were sound asleep, resting from the toil of the day that had gone by, and recharging for the toil of the day to come. Then at 3:42 AM, disaster struck.