Earthquake story

The Christchurch Cathedral before and after the quake.

The devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand on Tuesday 22 February will bring us many stories of heroic rescues and horrendous loss, injury and many deaths. I found the following account, written on 25 February, of one person's experience of the quake very thought-provoking. I'm not printing her name, to protect her privacy:

I'm still running on adrenaline here as the demands at the airport have been great. While the airport was immediately shut down and 1000 people evacuated, there were lots of medical and military flights coming in, and the PM of course. Media calling all the time; lots of press releases to put out.

I was at work till 11pm the first day and came home in the complete dark to find 4 inches of silt around my house, huge holes in the area around the next town house - and I couldn't get in my front door cos things had fallen against it and were blocking it from inside.  So I went to a friend's house.  She had found some people whose hotel had been wrecked - they had lost everything, and only had the clothes they were wearing. Passports, everything, left in the hotel. She brought them back to her place, along with two friends whose house was uninhabitable. There we were, in the kitchen, piles of broken crockery in the corners, boiling water on the stove, and trying not to use the loo.  Luckily power had been restored then, though 40% of the city still doesn't have power.

There ended up being 6 of us on the floor that night, lying on mattresses and blow up beds on the floor, with all the doors wide open in case we needed to run out of the house fast.  We "slept" in our clothes, while a barrage of severe aftershocks hit. First there would be a deep rumble, then the windows would rattle, the walls would shake and the floor would sway. Not much sleeping happened. I lay there and prayed for the people still trapped in the rubble. I thought of the 650 refugees from hotels in the city, sleeping in Hagley Park just across the road from me, as the rain fell and the earth shook.

At 4am, after almost no sleep, I got up and went back to the airport...first press release went out at 6am.  I usually do 4 a month; yesterday I did 7 in one day. Took calls from the BBC, Wall St Journal, European TV, lots of media from Australia....

Finally had a shower at the Airport Fire Station (where we are based for the emergency). Absolutely delicious.  The immense pleasure and relief of having hot water - something we normally take for granted.

I am grateful now for food, for hot drinks, for water, for shelter, for friends.

Got home yesterday afternoon feeling exhausted;  borrowed a ladder; a neighbour crawled in through an upstairs window.I surveyed the damage... Lots of smashed things - and no water to clean it up with!

You can imagine - wine bottles smashed on the kitchen floor, soy sauce, vases and flowers all over furniture; bookcases had tumbled, cupboards had opened and all the contents strewn across the floor; but basically the house is fine.

Lots of friends here have lost all their crockery and glass ware. 80% of the city is without water. That means no sewerage.....eek! They are suggesting people do their business in buckets and bury it in the garden. I only have a concrete patio... I am going up to Auckland this weekend - and bringing my laundry!!

Last night I had a good sleep in my own bed. Lovely.  Slept through the aftershocks. Feel better today. Sunny too - that helps.....back at work since 7.30am.

It's the city and the people I'm worried about. It will take decades to recover from this.  And the trauma will hit people soon.  Our iconic churches have gone.  Some people are still trapped in there. The entire city centre is devastated and cordoned off, full of search and rescue people. All the central city businesses are affected. Lots of people leaving while water is off.  Fair enough too. I heard another friend's house is wrecked.  She and her husband and daughter have flown up to Auckland to be with family.

I just keep my head down and work hard through all this.  If I look at the television and press images of the destroyed city for too long, I want to cry.

The stamina and goodwill of the people here is amazing.  They are all pulling together.  There are so many stories of bravery, of generosity, of quiet courage.

We are hoping against hope that more people will be rescued.