Wow, what a week. First of all, many of you know that Christchurch (my home town) was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 4:35 on Saturday morning. A lot of the old brick buildings in town have either fallen down or need to be demolished. We lost power and water and for many it took four days to get their amenities back. All water once back on had to be boiled for three minutes before drinking/eating/washing until yesterday. Many roads are ripped up, fields are ruined and we've experienced over 395 aftershocks of up to a magnitude of 5.4 since the main event on Saturday with the most violent aftershock being a shallow 5.1 on Wednesday morning causing buildings even further damage.
The city centre is still cordoned off and has a 7pm-7am curfew due to the danger of unstable buildings and continued aftershocks. The Mayor has extended our 'state of emergency until Wednesday of next week.
The most amazing part though...there were NO deaths (of the human kind anyway)! A combination of timing (most people were in bed at the time) and the way our buildings are built has meant there have been few serious injuries and no deaths, we are so, so lucky. With the aftershocks still continuing, everybody's nerves are on edge and pets are terrified. I know my heart pounds every time I hear a truck rumbling down the road as this is what most of the big ones sound like before they hit. Most of the big ones are in the middle of the night so you are jolted awake which isn't nice at all so needless to say a lot of people are sleep deprived. Many have had to flee their homes, including my Grandparents, due to the damage caused and there are several welfare centres set up around the city. There are hundreds of fabulous volunteers running these centres and the whole city really has come together to work through this disaster which is truly amazing (apart from a select few who have been looting abandoned shops and homes). Others have had enough and have left the city until things calm down. Our cattery at work is almost full and at least three of the cats are there because their 'humans' had no choice but to abandon their homes.
Thankfully after having repairs done to our plaster-clad house earlier in the year, we have sustained no damage whatsoever. We live in an older part of town and a lot of brick chimneys in the neighbourhood have fallen down causing a lot of damage to roofs. We are lucky to have both our cats safe at home, they didn't seem to freak out too much and even though a lot of water sloshed out of the fish tank, it didn't topple and all the fish survived though it was a bit of a concern at first when we had no power for the tank heater!
Things are all normal for me as far as work is concerned, no damage there and the animals still need us. As most schools are closed until at least next week Hamish has been off work except for the odd excursion to fix something after the power outages.
A selection of photos from around the city can be viewed here.
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