Wow! Survived 7.1 earthquake! By kiwiscoot (Read 1,008 times)

[kiwiscoot]

Some of you may have seen that we had an earthquake this morning. Scary stuff, 4:35 am this morning being jostled out of a warm bed. No damage luckily to my home, but extensive damage in the city. Lots of old building had walls collapse, roads torn up, chimneys down.
Still aftershocks as I type this. Had a 5.4 one at 5pm. Where I work major damage, pallet racking down with heavy medical X-ray equipment smashed. Went to assess the damage and an aftershock came thru - real scary, I was out of the warehouse like a scalded cat let me tell you.
I'm just making a short video which I will share shortly.
Just to let you know Kiwiscoot is fine.
from
shaken up Kiwiscoot
PS Both scoots are fine, Citycom copped two single bed matresses, but no damage luckily.
read about it here

[kiwiscoot]

My It's already 10:45pm, but I can't go to bed even tho we've been up since 4:35am. After shocks still coming thru in swarms, making the house sway. Makes one very jittery as we still expect a magnitude 6+ aftershock.
Warm clothes, torches, keys, wallet next to bed on floor, containers with drinking water all ready.
And on top of this we expect a storm to hit the city tomorrow afternoon with winds of 65kph to 130kph. We sure are in for a rough weekend.
I need a long scoot trip to settle the nerves, but it's dark, cold 6 degC out there and I guess scooting is not the best with quakes.
kiwiscoot

[wolfhound]

We are thankful that you have survived. It seems that earthquakes are no strangers to New
Zealand. Please keep us posted as to your well being and let us see those videos of the
situation.

[ccprof]

Saw that in this morning's paper. I was focused on the hurricane and missed the quake. I was worried about you until I logged in. Be safe my friend and keep us posted!

[Bashan]

[kiwiscoot]

Only a few after shock woke us. It surely does not make for a good night's sleep.
Strong cold winds at the moment. I feel for those with damaged homes.
kiwiscoot

[Smorkle]

Glad you're safe bud. Take care of yourself and your neighbors!

[kiwiscoot]

Earth Quake video
Just a video of our drive thru the area that our Civil Defense area service. There was the possibility that they may have needed to evacuate because of flooding and sewage.

Well for those who may be interested I will describe the happenings here.
At 4:30 we were all pretty much asleep in our warm beds with a cold 5degC morning outside. 5 minutes later my wife started shouting and I felt the bed jolting. I rolled out of bed onto the floor, while my wife got up and stood under the bedroom door-frame. Realizing that things aren't to bad we both ran and stood in the toilet door holding onto the door (so that it would not hurt us) and the frame. After about 40s (felt like ages) the rumbling stopped, but the house kept swaying for a few minutes, we could feel it thru the door frame and hear the squeaking.
When all was quiet I felt it was better to be prepared for what follows by dressing, putting warm jackets, sturdy hiking boots, warm hats, wallet, torches, lantern, house-keys and wallet next to our bed, in case we have to evacuate on further shocks.
Just as I put the electric jug on to make a cuppa coffee to settle the frayed nerves the power went off. Luckily the water was just warm enough for a enjoyable warm drink. We then filled a few containers with water for in case the water supply fail. Went back to bed fully dressed. Now with no power and heating the house started to cool down a fair bit. Don't exactly know when, but about an hour latter the next one strikes. This time up. Went to outside shed and got our camp stove. Made a proper hot coffee. Went outside, but saw no damage. Later saw a neighbour knocking on the window of another house. Joined him and it turned out he was trying to see if his 90 year-old neighbour was fine. I opened a garden gate and we found her - she was Ok.
Now just before 8 am, decided to go to work and see if any damage. Now damage at new premises, just the odd thing fell down. Went to old premises and what a mess. A 12m long 3m high pallet rack in the middle of the warehouse full of x-ray machines and spare had toppled over on it's side. Luckily it did not topple over to the other side as a boat, jetski and vintage gig was parked there. An x-Ray machine was toppled over and another rack next to them and just hanging from the ropes tying it to the pallet waiting to fall on them. While I was looking at this another aftershock of 5.4v magnitude came thru. When the first things started to rattle I was out of the warehouse like a shot! Man did the roller doors make a racket. Decided no use as we can't do anything while there are still aftershocks.
We are Civil Defense Volunteers, so we went down to the designated school and opened up a Emergency relief center. A few other volunteers turned up. The rest of the morning was just a waiting game while the damage was assessed and while the authorities were assessing if an evacuation was needed. As it was not needed our center was stood down. We went for a drive and took the video, sorry it is a bit shaky because of the slumped road.
Later the night we had a sleep, but you seem to stay on edge. Today we went for a drive and a lot of the old buildings have serious damage. Lots of older homes too. We had a severe gale warning, but luckily for we only had 30kph winds not the 60 - 130kph they predicted.
We were fortunate on a scooting front too. My wife was down in Dunedin for studies and came up to a little town 150kms from Christchurch on Thursday night (night before the quake). I went down on the scoot Thursday night after work to join her. It was my fathers-day present from my wife. We had a deligtful stay there on Thursday night never knowing that it would be extensively damaged by the quake the next night! I did think that I would not like to be in it in a quake as it is about 80+years old, double story, with a central staircase with skylight windows above it. They were kind enough to let my scoot sleep in the foyer the night, well the foyer was damaged, a balconey above it collapsed, side walls have holes, etc. From the news it sound like it is condemned now. Boy we were fortunate. It would've been a frightening experience as we were the only guests.
Well enough of my spiel.
Take care
Kiwiscoot

[kiwiscoot]

Well we had a rough night again with more aftershocks, about 11 over 3 magnitude. Three of these were over 5 magnitude, not nice to be standing in the doorway of a swaying house on midnight and the again just after 3 o'clock in the morning. Difficult to sleep after that. Everybody is in a sort of daze from frayed nerves and lack of sleep. After this I'll have more sympathy for earthquake victims as I never thought of the taxing after-shocks. They keep on causing more and more damage. One Civil Defense Emergency Centre had to be evacuated as it was damaged in the night, not good for the 70 homeless people sheltering there.
www.stuff.co.nz/national/canterbury-earthquake/4098378/7-1-earthquake-Aftershock-damage
I haven't made an accessment of the damage to my home, but I know the window frames are out of square as the windows will not open in one part of the house and the gap under the front door has a half inch difference over its length. Only one crack in an outside wall.

Think of us as we brace ourselves for another unknown night as we get more and more predictions of an over-6 magnitude aftershock. This is caused by a newly discovered faultline just 20km from us and the quakes are very shallow. You can see the data here
www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html
The Darfield is 40km west of us and Leeston/Rolleston is 20 southwest of us.
rattled & shaken Kiwiscoot
PS tho we can still smile ;D ;D

[ccprof]

I'm glad to hear that you're physically ok Kiwi. Damage to the house can be fixed. Windows and doors out of square - sounds like the guy who built my house. Be safe!

[kiwiscoot]

CCProf - perhaps if your house was here it now would have had square windows! ;D
kiwiscoot

[ccprof]

Possibly Kiwi. Nothing in this house is square.

[kiwiscoot]

Interesting statistics today in the paper.
900+ after shocks above 3 magnitude after the big one on Saturday.
77+ over 4 magnitude
11 over 5 magnitude, with the last one damaging all the windows in one part of the city that were repaired earlier this week.
We're having better nights from being probably to tired to care, just stay in bed and sleep thru it. I feel for parents with young children. The kids are scared, tired and traumatized. Some parents are taking their children away to family away from the city.
Even the babies here will have withdrawal symptoms when this is over as they will only be used to "milk shakes"! ;D
Kiwiscoot

[ccprof]

Thanks for the update Kiwi. Be safe and keep us posted!