Earthquake in Christchurch: Your experiences and messages

By Jordan

been trying all day to find out if my fiancee is safe and ok. if anyone has any infomation about how christchurch mens prison help up during the quakes would be lovely to know but no-one so far has wanted to help. turns out people seem to think that just because they are in prison, people don't care about them but thats a load of shit!
thoughts go out to all the familys and friends of the people who lost there lives today.

By chybvkgh luybly

b nyg kgbv kgv ktg kynkfvk y

By Jeffrey Huffadine

It certainly was a wakeup call.7.1magnitude quake was enough to frighten and scare th biggest majority of Cantabrians.But luckily no one was killed.One would think that most of us including myself were well prepared by participating in the CivilDefence exercises but were unaware of this 7.1 magnitude occurring unexpectedly.It only lasted a few minutes until the aftershocks began to rattle and rumble.

By Lorraine

The Martin family don't deserve an apology. They abused stole from and intimidated good hearted people while being cared for in a Civil Emergency by volunteers who showed compassion and care for displaced or evicted people. They set their own rules, took control of particular areas of the Welfare Centre and made Maori look bad. They were not the only ones sent packing from the centre however they seem to be the only ones who made enough noise to provide a division amongst the public. There is no excuse and what they did is not acceptable. Abuse of this situation would not be said as OK in a non Emergency situation, there fore I believe their action as classed as appaulling dispicable behaviour and makes me embarrased to be Maori. I do not share their waka.

By Brenda

I have just received a phone call at my home from the Manager of Butler Auto on Stanmore asking that post here again amending my earlier post. I reluctantly do so in the hope that I do not hear from him again. He tells me that I implied that my step father was turned away without any water. I noted in the statement that he’d accused my step father of hoarding, which I doubt could arise without the taking of water. Being in a severely hit area they were realistic that water would not be restored to them quickly. They were correct in this assumption and their water was resumed 6 days later.
I would like to confirm that approximately 35 litres of water was taken by him for himself, his wife and his neighbours. I would also like to reiterate that the water they took was from an outside tap and not about to run out because of the amount taken. Residents were asked to conserve water to “to ease stresses on the sewage system” not because it was going to ‘run out’.

By Lana Hutchinson-Smith

What a noise! I will never forget that awful noise early on sept 4th! We live in Darfield and i just jumped out of bed and scrambled to my youngest sons room, hes 2 1/2. Grabbed him and ran back to my room, by that time my husband had our 4 1/2 year old and we all huddled under the blankets together. Once it had stopped (i cant tell you how many there were, my mind seems to have blanked all that out as well as things falling, all i can remember is holding tight to my boys and the house roaring and shaking) Once it was over we found torches and lay together until daylight, texting family and friends on my cell to make sure all okay. Very lucky a few cracks in the house and breakages but my heart goes out to the people who have lost everything. I wish i could help and at the moment am worried for the minds of my boys as they run under the kitchen table every time we have an aftershock. Night time is the worse time as we want to protect our children whilst trying to return to normality. I hope they stop soon for the sake of everyones wellbeing. xxx

By Eileen Beardsley

At the time, the quake was very frightening because you never know how your house will hold up or when it is going to stop! I guess I had always thought that all houses would crumble in an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 but no, our house on the hill in Cashmere seems perfectly fine. May still have it checked over though. Luckily the after shocks haven't been affecting myself, my partner or my two older children like they have some poor people, but the big one on Wednesday morning certainly did scare us a bit. We haven't had any breakages either. I consider we were very lucky just because of where our house is situated.

By HATU

Hold on tight till the rocking’s over You never know what might just be Don’t let go of the things that matter Could be the end of you and me The buildings topple like a house of cards And the earth just liquefies Then children scream and babies cry As a mother wipes her eyes Homes are swallowed underground Gone in a mighty flash The supermarket has the goods As long as you’ve got cash. Rubber neckers all around That feast on devastation as volunteers put up their hands To begin the reclamation We’ve never seen this kind of thing It’s all so very new It’s sort of like we’ve all just bitten off More than we can chew When the dust has settled here And the costs have all been counted I hope that we are all still standing And the task will be surmounted It won’t be easy rest assured It might take many years To relocate the homeless kids And heal their mother’s fears But faith prevails through tragedy And hope is quintessential We’ll have to learn to live again But the job is more than mental It takes a heart to ease a mind And a soul to make a city So hold on tight till the rockings over Giving up would be a pity Rock on my friends and shake it off Arise and roll on steady There’s lots of work here left to do We’d better all be ready HATU Feel free to share copyright 2010 R.A .Colgan