Family safe, but home wrecked after quake

Going to sleep with his bedroom door open probably saved the life of 11-year-old Daniel Roberts.

The Darfield youngster's home sits near the epicentre of yesterday's devastating earthquake and it bore the brunt of nature's fury as the earth beneath it twisted and warped, splitting the house virtually in two.

Daniel was asleep when the earthquake hit, collapsing the ceiling in his bedroom. Fortunately he had left his bedroom door open and that stopped the ceiling from falling on to his bed.

''It was so scary,'' Daniel told the Sunday Star-Times. ''It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced.''

Daniel's mum Di was due to start work at 6am yesterday morning and was awake when the quake struck.

''I heard a huge bang . .. . it felt like a train was running into the house it was so intense,'' she said. ''It seemed go on forever.''

She and her husband Craig screamed out to Daniel and their two other children to check they were okay as the realisation of their narrow escape hit them.

''Daniel was sitting on his bed and the ceiling all around him had collapsed. He was really upset,'' Di said.

Fearing further quakes, the Roberts tried to get outside but the doors of their home had all jammed, so that they had to use brute force to get out.

It was only as daylight broke that they realised just how badly the house had been hit.

''I think it's probably lucky that it happened at night because we couldn't see just how much damage their was. It was only as it got light that we realised the house had been pretty much torn in two,'' Di said.

Yesterday the family began the heart-breaking task of salvaging as many of their personal possessions as possible from the wreckage of their once sturdy brick and tile home.

Inside debris from the collapsed ceiling littered the floors and the ranchsliders that once offered tranquil views over the surrounding countryside hung askew as if someone had yanked them off.

Large gaping cracks turned the concrete foundations of the home into a giant jigsaw puzzle, and illustrated the devastating force of the quake, which has created undulating hillocks in the neighbouring properties where once there was only flat land.

Craig Daniels said he was ''pretty sure'' the house would have to be demolished.

''We can probably get a lot of our possessions out but the house itself is just a wreck - it will have to be bulldozed.''

Di said the support from the community had been amazing. The family had been inundated with offers of temporary accommodation and help cleaning up.

''I'm still in a state of shock,'' she said, as friends began removing prized possessions from the house. ''It's a miracle we all got out without so much as a scratch but it was bloody terrifying. I never ever want to go through anything like that again.''

- © Fairfax NZ News