I was airborne at time so missed it. Glad I did as my wife and kids are pretty nervous and stressed about it.
Last night we had a 5 richtor scale while I was on FaceBook at 1038pm. I asked my son how that compared to the big quake. He said "2 out of 10 dad." Well I was freaked with that little quake so can't imagine what they went through.
There have been heaps of tremors almost every hour over the last 36 hours. Fortunately our house and suburb has been let off lightly. My mates have a pool of water 6 inches deep around their house and under it. It is on piles and close to river. The shaking caused liquafication and shaked up groundwater. Canterbury has had wet winter. Their neighbours have about ankle deep mud and silt over their lawns.
Another mates house shaked and walls exploded apart. Pretty new house on a concrete pad. Others have had pads broken and half the house raised 150mm. Amazing heaps of brick chimneys have fallen. Some have toppled onto roofs and then on to drive ways. Others have crashed through the roof into living spaces.
Power back to 90% of city. Some suburbs have sewerage and no water. A few areas have contaminated water supplies.
A few websites you can look at:
http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news
Check out the frequency of the aftershocks. There have been a few 5's
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html
Anyway I reckon the best thing to do is keep busy. Keeps minds of quake etc. Had a game of soccer with neighbours. Then we sanded the boat for a while. All hands on deck. I reckon we could all stand with arms outstretched holding sand paper. Thus every time it shakes we will sand boat :-).
Actually. Hand sanding took to long. Fired up orbital with 120 grit. Flattened off ridges from No1 undercoat quickly. We painted on 2nd layer of No3. Went on quick and thick. Actually the thicker amount flowed out very nice. I reckon the lighter amount we put on yesterday was draggy on tipping brush.
Anyway here are a few pics. No real damage at our place. Only a few books off shelves and drawers open. But about 8km away in town old buildings smashed! Amazed my big heavy unsecured drill press didn't fall off work bench!
Only a few books down. Shelves stayed up.
A few draws open.
But only 8km away carnage!!! Pxt msg from my Captains, 17 year old, son. He got up and cruised streets and took this photo. We got diverted to Auckland as we had been enroute Rarotonga-Christchurch that night. When I phoned Kelly they had no power, radio, TV or internet. Thankfully cell towers worked on back up power. They were in my suburb shaken but no major damage. When I PXT this photo to them their jaws dropped. It was there first indication that all wasn't that well in Christchurch.
Nothing like working on boat to keep busy
Roll on.
Tip off.
It is weird and surreal staying at home and working on boat when 10-20% of the city is pretty damaged. The local Civil Defence has asked everyone to stay put, look after neighbours and be prepared. Structural engineers are looking at virtually every commercial and public building and assessing damage. All local schools are shut until at least wednesday.
I just hope the aftershocks stop. A lot of people a very over it! I know I am.
If any Cantaburians are reading this and need some help send me a message and I'll drop anything to help.
Cheers
Brian
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