I finally got an e-mail from my teaching colleague in Chelyabinsk. She’s OK, thankfully. No problems, but she said when she heard the explosion, she damned near soiled herself.
The sound of the explosion and breaking glass everywhere was quite an experience, she wrote. Scary as hell. She said for a quick second, she honestly thought it was a nuclear attack - she was waiting for the fireball to consume her and everyone else.
She wasn’t alone. From what we are reading, lots of people over there thought they it was a nuke.