2ND Anniversary of original 7.1 CHCH Earthquake

[beagle]

Yep, 2 years today the earth moved beneath CHCH and it has changed a lot of peoples lives for ever down here.
At least I was asleep this time at 0435 and snored right through.

[ngatimozart]

The precursor quake woke me up and I didn't even bother getting out of bed for the 7.1 because no point with filing cabinet tipped over blocking bedroom door. I was living in the middle floor of a three level concrete block of flats at the time. Yep everyones life changed in that instant, but liitle did we know at the time how much. We were busy congratulating ourselves about how lucky we were that no one was killed.

[beagle]

supermarket racking above the head tends to get you thinking if this is a safe place to be

[ngatimozart]

I suppose it's one way of checking if the sphincter muscle is working properly ;D ;D ;D

[beagle]

I forgot to say no, so after the brain told the feet to move they moved rather quick out of the aisle passed another aisle to a tunnel to a storeroom. Didn't go any further as in the storeroom, as seeing racking 4 and 5 pallets high just swaying back and forth was not the place to be. Looking back in the store, all the racking I had ran passed was on the floor in a twisted mess with groceries everywhere, then the problem of a young store worker crying.

[johnnyfalcon]

I heard it coming, thought it was a freight train until the entire building started making like a jack-hammer! Tried running for the door and fell over 6 times. Got to the ranchslider in time to see the high tension power lines outside crashing and sparking in a giant shortcircuit firework show, then all went black as the power went out. Decided to stay put as I couldn't tell whether the lines had come down and if the earth wasn't opening up to swallow me. 45 seconds is a long time........

Yep, haven't been the same since

[beagle]

Yes, as I was in PNS Hornby, I originally thought a train had run off the rails etc behind the store. It was very loud in there.

[johnnyfalcon]

I was only a kilometre away from you Beagle. Had been lying awake for about 10 minutes before which is very unlike me. It must have been quite claustrophobic (is that the right adjective?) for you in PNS

[obiwan27]

A lot has happened and changed in the past two years. I too just lay in bed waiting for it all to stop. I was house-sitting at the time and with the power off felt that it was best to wait until morning to see what i could do.

In the morning, after a tidy up in the living room and hallway, I went outside expecting the worst. I had to walk around the place twice as I could not see any visible damage at all.

The most reassuring thing was the sound of an Iroquois flying around the neighbourhood ( I was housing sitting in Riccarton).

Little did we know that worse was to come.

[jonesy]

We're visiting Chch in a few weeks time...gonna be a bit of a shock to see what its like now. Will be enough of a shock to see whats left of Wigram! (at least God wasnt blamed for that act...)

[beagle]

yes you are going to get a shock of whats happening on the airfield.

As for around town, there is still some pocketss of famage to see but since they have already knocked down about 1200 buildings in the CBD, there are lots of vacant spaces, quite afew have been snapped up by Wilson parking and they are charging $1 per hour.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Sept 5, 2012 5:13:05 GMT 12 beagle said:

As for around town, there is still some pocketss of famage to see but since they have already knocked down about 1200 buildings in the CBD, there are lots of vacant spaces, quite afew have been snapped up by Wilson parking and they are charging $1 per hour.

After the big nuclear war, the survivors will be cockroaches, rats, and Wilson Parking.

[beagle]

4 years since the first big one this morning.
haven't felt a decent one for ages.

[Dave Homewood]

Um, isn't it five years Beagle?