Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand

4.30 a.m., I think I had probably been asleep for all of an hour and half, when massive shaking woke me up. It felt like someone grabbed the house and started shaking and didn't stop!

I flipped straight into :
Q. WHAT?
A. Earthquake?
Q. How bad?
A. F****** BAD!!!!
Q. Potential damage to house?
A. Stuff probably falling off the outside. (Seriously, I did not see HOW the house could survive unscathed.)
Q. Family?
A. I shouted for everyone to "Get in a doorway!!" (forget getting under a dining table, we were upstairs, it was pitch black and the power was out) and I shouted it four times becuase daughter and boyfriend were downstairs.

I have never felt anything like it. Nor have I ever heard such a sound, the rumbling/roaring of the earthquake and the sounds of a house in distress.

Searching round the floor for my torch, which had rolled off the bedside drawers, I rushed downstairs to check on my daughter and her boyfriend, and had no sooner opened the door than an aftershock (of 5.2) hits! We were ALL freaked, and we were all scared!

We all moved to the kitchen, lit some candles, turned off the torches, to conserve battery power, and then managed to find a radio (the only radio we had was on my husband's Nokia cell phone!) that was when we heard it was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. (Later the 7.4 was downgraded to a 7.1.)

The Earthquake was centered just over 30 kilometers away and was about 10 kilometers deep. The area worst hit was probably the central business district.

Falling bricks damaged a number of cars. The Daily Bagel was one of a row of shops whose entire front facade just fell off!

A state of emergency has been declared in the central business district to give the civil defense people the power to keep people out of the city. Nosy people who just want to look at the damage, and get in the way, as well as risking their safety. There are a number of unstable buildings that could topple onto a passer-by.

We have areas of this kind of damage to the exterior.

We personally have some cracks in the exterior concrete blocks of the house, but nothing major. I was really amazed that we did not have stuff falling off the house...and just goes to show how sturdy this house is! Some neighbors had chimneys that fell down and smashed the roof. Two people were seriously injured, one by a falling chimney, and another by fall glass. Aside from those two, other injuries have been reasonably minor (as far as we know).

Fallen chimneys from the block we live on.

On a night with a filthy cold frost we were now without power. No way to heat the house or any water for a coffee/tea. Bundled up, we listened the news reports.

It was likely that we would not know when the power would come on until an announcement was made somewhere round 11 a.m. It was hopeful that we would have power back on by the end of the day. 

This is just round the block we live in.

There are cracks in many roads, and footpaths. Some deep enough to stand in (so I heard on the radio).

And what is the thing you really really want to do at a time like that? UPDATE YOUR BLOG!!! Post on facebook!!! But with no power we had no broadband router, hence no internet.

The power came on 7 hours later. Finally some heat and a cup of tea! As far as the water system goes, the Mayor has advised that the water is going to be turned off. I don't know if this is so they can repair, or investigate. I have filled bottles etc so that we have a supply to last us. Thank goodness I did the grocery shopping yesterday!

My sister and her family are fine. My Dad, thank goodness, was in hospital, where he has been for two weeks with an infection inside his knee. He said the quake scared the crap out of him and he thought it was the end of the world! Thank goodness he was in a place where he was safe and where they had power and heat. It was the first time I was glad he was in hospital!

It was one hell of a way to wake up...and at the back of your mind you are saying to yourself, silently, "This can't be happening.

The road is a foot lower than the bridge

Christchurch was very lucky. It could have been so much worse. And if this is the big earthquake that we have all been waiting for in this city...then we got off lightly.