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Hello, sorry it has been so long, but we are OK.


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For those who don't know, I live in Christchurch East. NZ

 

I am sorry it has taken so long to get in touch and let you know we are OK, and i don't know if there are any threads about the quake as I haven't yet had time to look.

 

We only got power back two days ago, and my computer did not make it through the quake, so I have borrowed a laptop. Water is intermittent, and the toilet is a chemical one that arrived 12 days after the quake (before that it was a hole in the garden!!!!!)

 

Although everything inside my house is broken, the house itself stood up well. It is an old wooden house and although it has shifted and settled it is still here and doing well.

 

My family was scattered all over the town, but we all managed to get in contact with each other by 7pm (about 6 hours after the quake). Everyone was fine, although some were in the town centre when the quake hit. One daughter in her 20's has had to move out of her house, but she is now living with another daughter on the comparatively unaffected west side of the city, as she had power and water and we didn't. My son (14 and the only child now at home) was away from me at a class at the time. It took me two and a half hours to reach him, with liquefaction, bridges impassable, floods, holes in the road etc etc. He is OK but we have all been sleeping in the one room until the power came back, just 2 days ago. He needs a night light, something he has not needed since he was 4.

 

Now Japan has had such a dreadful quake and Tsunami and I have spent the whole night awake, thinking of them and watching to see if the Tsunami will come our way, as I am quite near the beach. And the Japanese were so wonderful after our quake, coming so quickly, with expert searchers and other help. I cannot bear this for them.

 

Willow.

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For those who don't know, I live in Christchurch East. NZ

 

I am sorry it has taken so long to get in touch and let you know we are OK, and i don't know if there are any threads about the quake as I haven't yet had time to look.

 

We only got power back two days ago, and my computer did not make it through the quake, so I have borrowed a laptop. Water is intermittent, and the toilet is a chemical one that arrived 12 days after the quake (before that it was a hole in the garden!!!!!)

 

Although everything inside my house is broken, the house itself stood up well. It is an old wooden house and although it has shifted and settled it is still here and doing well.

 

My family was scattered all over the town, but we all managed to get in contact with each other by 7pm (about 6 hours after the quake). Everyone was fine, although some were in the town centre when the quake hit. One daughter in her 20's has had to move out of her house, but she is now living with another daughter on the comparatively unaffected west side of the city, as she had power and water and we didn't. My son (14 and the only child now at home) was away from me at a class at the time. It took me two and a half hours to reach him, with liquefaction, bridges impassable, floods, holes in the road etc etc. He is OK but we have all been sleeping in the one room until the power came back, just 2 days ago. He needs a night light, something he has not needed since he was 4.

 

Now Japan has had such a dreadful quake and Tsunami and I have spent the whole night awake, thinking of them and watching to see if the Tsunami will come our way, as I am quite near the beach. And the Japanese were so wonderful after our quake, coming so quickly, with expert searchers and other help. I cannot bear this for them.

 

Willow.

 

Wow! :grouphug:

 

Glad to hear from you.

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S

 

(Liquifaction is just horrible, isn't it. Seems unfair, somehow, for earth to become liquified.)

 

Liquefaction is dreadful awful horrible...there are not enough words.

 

you have the quake, everything is falling around you and you don't know when it will stop.

And then the water starts, first water runs down the road, everything is flooded, then the liquefaction starts everything is covered with grey silt, holes open up in the road, and it just keeps coming. Then eventually the water drains away and everything is covered with grey silt mixed with sewage. It come up inside houses too, but thankfully not in our bit of our street. The telegraph poles fall down too, as the ground cannot support them, and it cannot support the weight of cars on the road and holes open up.

 

I talked to a teacher at a badly affected school. She thought their kids would DROWN in liquefaction. They were outside in the playground and the playground cracked and it started coming up, so they rushed the kids onto the field, and it kept coming up on the field too and they kept trying to find

higher ground....

 

Thank you for all your kind thoughts and prayers. I am sorry it has taken so long. My daughters got word out to wider family and friends, but it is only today i have managed to sit down at a computer and answer the several hundred emails in my inbox, and to visit here. And thanks to my friend Ellen for the loan of her laptop!

 

Willow.

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Liquefaction is dreadful awful horrible...there are not enough words.

 

you have the quake, everything is falling around you and you don't know when it will stop.

And then the water starts, first water runs down the road, everything is flooded, then the liquefaction starts everything is covered with grey silt, holes open up in the road, and it just keeps coming. Then eventually the water drains away and everything is covered with grey silt mixed with sewage. It come up inside houses too, but thankfully not in our bit of our street. The telegraph poles fall down too, as the ground cannot support them, and it cannot support the weight of cars on the road and holes open up.

 

I talked to a teacher at a badly affected school. She thought their kids would DROWN in liquefaction. They were outside in the playground and the playground cracked and it started coming up, so they rushed the kids onto the field, and it kept coming up on the field too and they kept trying to find

higher ground....

 

Oh my gosh, that is horrifying!

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Glad everyone in your family is OK & you are starting to get the basics (power, water, etc.) back. My dh is flying down to CHCH on tuesday to work for at least 3 weeks. Hopefully he & others flying in can help get CHCH on the road to recovery.

 

Blessings,

 

 

Please can you thank your husband for coming down Deb. The people of Christchurch are so grateful to everyone who has come/is coming.

 

Our prayers are for Japan now.

 

Kia Kaha.

Willow.

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