Last night around midnight we were woken by a lot of shaking in the form of a 7.5 earthquake that was centered in the South Island (near Kaikoura).
It was the biggest earthquake I've even been in and also the scariest, as we took cover in our bedroom (including Mia, who took shelter under our bed and wouldn't get out) we heard a lot of smashing sounds - I was certain it was our windows, fortunately for us it was only a few picture frames falling over.
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| This is pretty much as bad as the damage in our home got - we are very lucky |
We are very lucky - we still had electricity, internet and clean water. A lot of other people weren't so lucky and many of our friends in the lower lying suburbs had to evacuate their homes due to the threat of a tsunami.
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| Glass smashed in the central city by the earthquake, the glass from these windows was still on the footpath below |
Although Wellington was fairly badly hit, our friends in the South Island were much worse off, particularly those is Kaikoura and the surrounding area. They are completely cut off by road due to slips and various other areas of the country have sustained pretty seriously damage.
I don't remember an earthquake being felt so far and causing so much damage to so many places in the past.
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| Glassons on Cuba Street |
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Neither of us could go to work today, we both work in high rise offices buildings and all of these buildings need to be checked by engineers before people can return to work. At this stage Rich can't return to work tomorrow. My building has been checked, but its damaged, so I am not sure if I can go back yet.
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| T2 on Lambton Quay |
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The message today was to stay out of the city, but that's a little bit hard when you live in the city and its your home. We did go for a walk and despite what the media said about Wellington being a "ghost town" there were actually quite a few people around and cafes open. The city is a ghost town on Christmas Day - it was quiet today.
We are safe, but really didn't sleep last night and there were a lot of aftershocks last night and today. Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day x
6 comments:
I'm glad to hear you are ok, but sad to see the signs of devastation around your country. It must be a scary time for you all.
I am pleased to hear that your are OK with only minor damage
Glad to hear that you're safe. The devastation looks awful, xxx
I'm so glad you're both okay. When I heard about it on the news, I thought of you and hoped that you were both safe. I can't imagine how scary it must have been. The devastation on the news looks awful, so I'm glad you guys only got minor damage to your home. Fingers crossed you can both return to work soon (or not too soon if you're enjoying the break!), and poor Mia recovers from the shock. xx
So glad you're okay, I was up most of that night worried about my niece! She moved to Christchurch about 6 months ago. I messaged her, but she didn't respond til 6am AU time, so of course I didn't get much sleep thinking about all the things that could have been wrong :P She was fine though, just a bit weirded out by alllll the earthquakes & aftershocks.
Oh my goodness!!!! That is super scary. I hope that things get sorted out. I can't imagine the feeling!
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