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  • I was in an earthquake!

    I was in a major earthquake yesterday. Really! You may have heard of the Christchurch earthquake. That's where I live.

    What an experience.

    The earthquake struck at 4.35 am, so I was deep asleep at the time. I can remember sitting bolt upright and thinking "What the . . . ?" and throwing the bedcovers back. Then, since I am a well-trained kiwi, my next memory is of already being in my bedroom doorway. I don't remember getting there or opening the door. The door was swinging at me and I was holding on to the doorframe for balance. It went on for ages. Such sharp, violent shaking. I've been in earthquakes before, of course. Smaller ones. Ones with more distant epicentres. Those types of earthquakes have a 'rolling' motion. My memory of yesterday's earthquake is already starting to dim (understandably - I was still mostly asleep) but it was definitely sharp and violent, like being inside a dog chew toy that is being shaken about.

    When it finally stopped, I went to the living room and turned the light on (I was one of the lucky few who didn't lose power). I looked for my cat - she was frozen under the sofa, looking at me. Alarms were going off in the business park around the corner - a scary sound. I saw that stuff had fallen down - I picked it up. Then I knelt down on the floor and gasped for a bit, and looked at the cat again. She was still frozen. I felt cold - I went and put my dressing gown on.

    About this time a neighbour came to knock on my door to see if I was OK. He had looked in on everyone else on the property and next door, and everyone was OK.

    Then I thought I'd look up the epicentre and strength of the earthquake, so I turned on my computer. No internet. I turned on the TV. No cable, and my TV isn't connected to an aerial. While I was doing this, I txted my boyfriend. He said he was OK, but he had no power. I quickly lost contact with him (his cellphone is in the process of dying, and runs out of batteries very quickly) but at least I knew he was OK.

    There were some aftershocks. I stood outside in my dressing gown in the dark for a while, just looking at the stars. Orion had risen since the evening before. It was surreal out there - even though dawn was a way off, all the birds were singing because they had been woken up and they couldn't go back to sleep.

    My cat went missing. I found her a while later in my bed huddling under the covers. I tried listening to my wind-up radio, and found to my annoyance that it isn't such a handy item after all, as it only takes about a minute of radio playing to run the battery out and then it needs to be wound up again. I txted my parents at about 7 o'clock asking for info, because I still didn't know anything about the quake. They didn't reply (still asleep) so I got into bed with the cat to keep her company. I got up again at 8.30 to ring my parents. They hadn't heard the news, so when I said I had been through a major earthquake, Mum said "You WHAT?!" They went away to turn the TV and computer on, then called me back when they had more info. They told me about extensive damage in the central city, but it seemed so unbelievable to me, because my place was fine.

    I read a book for a while. Then I mowed the lawns, because it was a lovely day and why not? Nothing better to do.

    The internet and TV came back on early afternoon and I finally saw the damage. That's when I realised that I had not just been through an earthquake, I had been through a MAJOR earthquake. I'm still coming to terms with it, that large parts of the central city will have to be rebuilt, and this will be affecting us for a long time to come.

    I have food, and I have water, although I have to boil it before use. Sewerage and waste water systems have been compromised, so I'm not supposed to flush my toilet or take showers, which is kinda gross but to be expected. I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday at the soonest (but unfortunately I have a work laptop with me, so I have to work anyway . . . such is 21st century life).

    And, yeah, I can now say that I have experienced a major disaster.

    How was YOUR weekend?

  • #2
    Yeouch! I heard about the quake on the news as I was driving to my regular Friday evening games session. Must've been only two or three hours after the quake. Strange how folks half way round the world can learn of these things before folks much nearer the event. Glad you're OK, and i hope the aftershocks (and the storm) don't cause too much more trouble. Good luck...
    -- Rick.

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    • #3
      Aftershocks are causing more damage. They are now estimating that the damage will cost NZ$4 billion (that's English billions, not American, but still). All the footage on the news of buildings being demolished is heartbreaking - so many of them are beautiful historic buildings. Smiths bookshop, more than 100 years old, has been condemned.

      No one died, but even so, it's devastation in the central city. It will take a decade for us to recover.

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      • #4
        How far around has the damage been bad? I took a look at the early fault-plane solutions, and the main quake's almost all strike-slip, so most of the motion at ground-level was probably side-to-side, which often isn't good for structures (though I guess NZ has some sensible quake-resistant building design requirements).

        Looking at the more detailed fault-plane solutions now, it seems there's been a bit of overthrust in the precursor and aftershock events. The precursor and main events were less than a minute apart, and on slightly different faults, so it must've been quite rough...
        -- Rick.

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        • #5
          OK, so I just spent ages writing a reply to you, but by the time I hit 'submit' I was logged out, and I lost my work! I hate how this board does that!

          So in short, because I'm not writing all that again:

          1. Many areas hit badly by liquefaction. Whole streets in a new subdivision by the sea will have to be abandoned.

          2. A town called Kaiaipoi hit badly - houses torn apart, sewerage may take months to repair properly.

          3. A suburb called Halswell hit badly because the end of the fault runs through it. Many aftershocks have been centered there, and have caused more damage.

          4. Many people have suffered more in aftershocks than the big one. My external wall has developed a crack this week.

          5. Farming hit hard. Grain silos are twisted heaps, paddocks have huge cracks and rifts in them.

          6. Original town planners of Christchurch emulated English architecture - many historic buildings in Christchurch are (were) made of non-proofed stone or bricks. Many churches destroyed. People have been fighting against the retro-active earthquake-proofing of historic buildings because the beams are 'unsightly'. Well, now those historic buildings are piles of rubble.

          All in all, a large swathe of the Canterbury plains has been affected, and is continuing to be affected.

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          • #6
            Strange thing with the logout; I seem to manage to stay logged in for months...

            That sounds quite unpleasant; surface ruptures and liquefaction are bad for just about all structures, and ruptured pipework is going to take a lot of repair.

            I can imagine the old English-style buildings will have been particularly hard hit, as we don't get many quakes here. Somewhere I've got photos (or maybe drawings, considering it was late 19th and early 20th century) of my great-grandfather's place in Timaru, which would have been a building like that. I believe it's long gone, though.
            -- Rick.

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            • #7
              sympathies...

              my sympathies (from a Southern Californian whose been through her share of Major and minor quakes, both very near and rather far from the epicenter).

              OK, now I have to go check all my earthquake kits and make sure they are up-to-date.

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              • #8
                You do that, Space Pen. And anyone else who lives in the vicinity of geological faults.
                A lot of people were caught out here, i.e. they had food but no water, or vice versa.
                As soon as the supermarkets opened post-quake, they were cleaned out of bottled water! When Civil Defense told us not to drink tap water because of possible contamination, many folks suddenly realised how important a stockpile of bottled water is.

                I had some bottled water. I also have a packet of water purification tablets, which taste gross, by the way!

                Oh, if you are one of those people who, like me, to save the planet through using less batteries, decided to buy a wind-up radio, maybe you should check how long your radio stays charged while in use. Mine only lasts a minute before it needs rewinding. Very annoying, and very hard to hear the Civil Defense alerts!

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                • #9
                  I hope at least the basic services are restored quickly.

                  I'd guess that a small sealed lead-acid re-chargeable battery and a suitable solar panel to keep it charged might be the best way to get steady electricity for something low-power like a radio receiver.

                  Water's rather trickier, as it takes quite a bit of space to store enough for more than a few days, especially if there's no water in the main supply at all. There's probably some merit in having rain-water collection tanks and some way of purifying it, though I expect there's a risk tanks would be damaged in a quake.
                  -- Rick.

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                  • #10
                    Glad there were no big issues in NZ!

                    We don't have much in the way of earthquakes out here. What we do have are hurricanes. We have a bug-out kit in case of the need for sudden evacuation with 3 days of supplies in it; if we have 20 min warning, we can leave without any ado. With an hour or more warning, we can empty the house of most everything necessary. After the last large earthquake in 2005, we started to keep several large containers of water on hand as well -- the old kitty litter bottles, after sanitizing, work great for this. The supplies get reviewed and updated every six months as needed. It might be a little paranoid, but maintaining the kit takes very little, and provides peace of mind.
                    "Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
                    "Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

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                    • #11
                      News today is full of reports of another quake in Christchurch. This one wasn't as powerful as the September one, but it was a lot shallower (only 5 or 6 kms down), so the ground's nearer the epicentre, and the disruption at the surface has been far worse...
                      Last edited by Lazy Leopard; February 25, 2011, 05:37:25 AM. Reason: speelign
                      -- Rick.

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                      • #12
                        You're not wrong.

                        The entire CBD of Christchurch has been pretty much wiped out this time. Whole city blocks will need to be demolished. It's hard to believe we have lost the Cathedral. That Cathedral was the symbol of Christchurch. There is talk of not rebuilding it, because of the danger structures like that pose in earthquakes.

                        I was out of the city this time, in Auckland for a business trip. It took me a long time to get on a flight home.

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                        • #13
                          Glad to hear you're ok.
                          New to the board? Please take the time to read the YW Board-Specific Rules, or Why We're Not Like Other Boards FAQ.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Space Cadet View Post
                            I was out of the city this time, in Auckland for a business trip. It took me a long time to get on a flight home.
                            Glad you're OK. I hope your home is OK too. We've seen some pretty frightening photos over here. Doesn't look good at all.
                            -- Rick.

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                            • #15
                              My place is fine, actually. I'm in the west of CHCH, so far away from the hard-hit areas. I feel guilty because I am too far away to help those in need. I don't have a car, and I'd never be able to walk there. I sent a bag of clothes with a neighbour to a welfare centre. Apparently that was really helpful because many people had been sending blankets, but few clothes had arrived.

                              I'm even allowed to flush my toilet now (sparingly) so I'm fine.

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