HOUSTON -- It is hard to watch the images of destruction coming from China. Harder still if you grew up in these places.

For Grace Gu the earthquake disaster in China is softened by word that her parents and brother are OK. Her 71-year-old father was at a newspaper stand when the temblor struck.

“So he has to grab the newspaper stand, then he saw the rooftops come down,” said Gu.

Her brother was lying down in a hospital bed  awaiting dialysis.

“He felt the bed shaken badly and he almost be throw out of the bed,” she said.

Turns out there are hundreds of Sichuan graduates like Grace and her husband here in Houston. Thanks largely to Sichuan medical and petroleum colleges.

Now the Internet is Grace's  best source of information. She was particularly anxious about schools that had collapsed, including one trapping 900 students.

Why? Because many of the kids who will be in the summer English program at Houston's Second Baptist Church are from Chengdu, one of the areas hardest hit.

Grace's husband just returned from Chengdu after having met all those kids. Again the news appears good and all the kids appear to be OK.

No small measure of relief in the worst earthquake to hit China in three decades.