" U Fly Extreme"
Adrenaline Action in New Zealand

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Christchurch.. Daughter #1 and Hubby

Thought that I should share this... and open another link and watch this video as well.


Earth Quake september 4 2010

by Jess on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 1:52pm

This is a recap of my experience inthe earthquake for friends and family outside of christchurch - everyone in christchurch has a similar story to tell - it isn't my story alone.

I was home alone when the earthquake struck saturday morning, as Saul was working a sleep over shift. I'm not sure wether it was the noise or the shaking that woke me to begin with, but I knew it was an earthquake instantly and rolled out of bed into the doorway. It got really big, really fast, and I quickly realised it wasn't a normal earthquake. I think I started shouting or crying or both - but the noise was overwhelming. I could see the walls bending around me, and I could hear things smashihng and falling. I was sure the house was going to come down around me and the fear was completely indescribable. I wasn't able to stand and ended up half sitting, bracing myself in the door frame. Although it was only 40 seconds, it was the longest most terrifying 40 seconds of my life. When the first shock ended, the first thing I did was turn on my light and get dressed. My head was running in another gear, and all I could think about was getting into clothes I could survive in if I had to run. I grabbed my wallet and phone and somehow got outside. Every alarm on the street was going. The first people I called were my parents - I wanted to ring saul but I had no money on my phone. It was 4.40 in the morning, but my parents still answered the phone, at first the didn't answer with anything - there was just silence (although now they tell me it as barely half a second and they couldn't get a word in edgewise) and I was crying into the phone, half stumbling through the words, they couldn't tell wether I was laughing or crying and it took a while for them to understand what I was actually saying. All I could say was 'Please tell me you felt that. Oh my God that was the biggest fricken earth quake I've ever felt in my life. what do I do."

I was imagining that there would have to be a tsunami - surely you can't possibly have an earthquake that big and not get one. and all I could think was how would I get away, I didn't have the car, how was I going to get on the roof. I could barely breathe for fear and then saul rang on the home line.

He was ok, also shaken, but he had to stay at work and so he would keep in touch on the phone. He told me to go inside and turn on the radio - I had already turned on the TV but it was still playing BBC. I was shaking so much I couldn't make the radio find the right function or station - and then the first aftershock hit. I managed to get to the doorway of the lounge and had to brace again, but this time, the power went out and I lost the connection with saul. I can honeslty say I have never felt that alone.

Needless to say I instantly rang my parents again, who by now were up and on the internet watching feeds from Twitter and geonet and were able to tell me what was happening as I sat outside in the dark.

I ended up going to my neighbours house and sitting in the dark with her on her couch.I fell into shock pretty quickly and she found me a Duvet to wrap up in, but the aftershocks kept coming, and each time was just a new burst of adrenalin fuelled fear as we waited to see if it would get any bigger.

from saul and my parents I began to get news of the damage to the city, and as the neighbour and I waited for the sun to rise and give us some light we began to realise just how big it had actually been. I sent saul and I love you text, as I wasn't sure when we would see eachother again - indeed there had just been a very real possibility that we might never see eachother again.

Luckily, Saul was eventualy able to come and get me and take me to where he was working. They had power so I was able to see the news. Somehow seeing all the pictures of the damage made it even worse, and I fell further into shock. Every after shock had me runing for the doors, and I was on the verge of tears all day, at one point I got so scared I thought I was about to be sick. I even said to saul - I'd rather just not be here than have to deal with fear like this.

But we managed to get through the day, the following night we were kept awake by aftershocks and the same thing the night after that - when three big ones hit. Luckily I had gone to work with saul for his sleepover this time - not wanting to be left home alone again. We were together, and we were lucky.

Somehow though, our house survived, and driving around our area, you wouldn't even think anything had happened. We managed to escape lightly from this earthquke - I have many friends who were not so lucky. One friend has lost her house - and I'm sure as I reconnect with people many more will have also.

I simply cannot believe no-one died, I thought my house was going to collapse and some houses have.

There hasn't been a big aftershock for nearly 24 hours now - we even slept through the 4.5 one last night. First full nights sleep we've had since saturday.

Everyone is still on edge here, schools are still closed till monday. We can drink tap water again in the city which is a blessing. The aftershocks keep happening, and with each one we are taken back to the first big one. But as I said, we got off lightly, and there are many people much worse of than us right now.

So for all of you outside of christchurch - what you are seeing on the news is not an overstatement. We were lucky, but we are still scared.

take care of yourself and your loved ones.

No comments:

Post a Comment