The Canterbury Earthquke - one person's story
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The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Canterbury, in New Zealand's south island on Saturday has made international headlines. Rather than rehashing what's out there, I am going to do something different from my usual writing style and write from the first person perspective on my own story of the quake.
Violent shaking woke me at 4:35 on Saturday morning, my partner and I got under the doorway and waited for it to stop. My head was throbbing- along with the quake every car alarm and fire alarm in the area was going off. We live in Central Christchurch, one of the hardest hit areas which is -as of today- under the control of the army. We went outside to assess damage after the shaking stopped, other apartment dwellers in pajamas and gowns mixed with all-night-long party goers in a surreal scene. One street had no power and was completely dark, another was covered in bricks and concrete, there was one crushed car. If the earthquake had occurred in day time I'm certain there would be many casualties.
When we awoke again we listened to the radio reports which told us to stay inside, so we did. We were some of the lucky few that had power and water, the phone service- which was out immediately after the quake when we tried to call friends and family- had also been restored. We turned the radio off when the constant flow of news stopped and regular programming resumed, so we missed the evacuation call. We found out from a civil defense worker after we ventured outside.
We took some bottled water and non-perishable food, unsure if we'd end up with family in the north of the city (which fared relatively well) or in one of the welfare centers set up in public schools.
We got out via one of Christchurch's main avenues, which were open, and made the journey to the northern suburbs with only one cracked road. We were lucky, while we're not sure when (of even if) we'll be able to go back to our apartment to live, we are doing better than a lot of people. That said, life will not be 'normal' again for some time.
