Christchurch earthquake - Your experiences

Residents in Christchurch are recovering from the shock of Saturday's massive earthquake, and have been contacting The Press to share their thoughts and experiences.

Photos of damaged houses flooded in, and a selection can be seen here.

Modern day survivors logged on to social networking sites to keep in touch and share their stories. One group called I survived the Christchurch earthquake has over 8,000 members.

Residents tell their stories

Joshua Keelen aged 8 years:

4.09.2010 4.40am  West Melton, Christchurch " I went to bed at Keith and Kathy's. No sound. All was well. Just another normal night... KABOOM!!! for a minute and a half. The next thing I had on my mind was a thunderstorm - but it was an earthquake.

The house was shaking and my bed was shaking and even I was shaking. I hid under the blankets and covered my head with my hands. By the time it had stopped, Keith came in and picked me up out of bed. We quickly walked to the doorway in my bedroom.

For another three or four hours there were aftershocks. It took Keith a wee while to come and get me because he was scared himself.

It was the first earthquake I had ever been in and the biggest that Keith and Kathy had been in too.

I was scared because it was huge and I even needed to hop into Keith and Kathy's bed. It was about 7.30am by the time we could get up so that we could see what we were doing. The damage was so bad that we had no power in the house. There was nothing that was useful anymore because everything was broken. There were heaps of cracks in the walls about one centimetre wide. All of the stuff was on the ground except us. All of the paintings on the wall were either on the ground or not in position.

Also the stuff in the pantry came tumbling out and onto the kitchen floor. All the plates flew out of the cupboards and broke onto the floor. Also all the wine glasses broke onto the oven door. All of the pot plants fell onto the carpet.

Two thousand litres of water leaked from up in the tanks in the ceiling upstairs and have gone through the whole house.

The ironing board got thrown across the lounge along with the 50 inch TV.

In the garage Keith's convertible got dented by all the tools that came off the wall. Also Keith's Volvo got dented as well. Keith's Formula Ford got its suspension broken too. But no-one was hurt.

AND, ACTION ... 

After all those years of working to lure filmmakers to the south,   Christchurch seems to have turned into some kind of massive movie set.

 It's not just the broken buildings, the ruptured homes and streets.     It's not only the rubble, the sirens and the no-go signs.   We are all a bit like walk-ons, or actors, in a shoot that has no script.   

Considering what it could have been, this will probably have a happy-ish ending:    peace and property shattered yet lives intact.   

 But who knows where this plot is going to go.  As this is a new fault will it do what the scientists expect?    And what will happen now  with the Alpine fault that we were all worried about before September 4^th.      We are living in Hitchcock-like suspense.

Certainly moving around in the hours after that first tremor was surreal and you felt like a survivor in a disaster film.   There was sun and blue sky.  It was a beautiful spring day yet nothing was normal and the aftershocks were unrelenting.    

In the faces of people in the street there was something;   a knowing, a bond.   That feeling that we are all in this together is still there and helps,  but  a week on, there's still anxiety.   It wasn't just sleep we lost that morning.    We have lost something else.   I can't think of the words.  It's something indefinable.

I hate earthquakes, probably with a "10 on the scale" intensity.   Here we've been woken by them before and gone back to sleep,  grateful it wasn't worse.  

This time as soon as you woke to it, you knew it was different.     There was no half asleep confusion.    This was big.   The sound was so violent and the rocking so intense.    As it shook harder, the house roared more.

 I couldn't have got up.  We just clung together and toward the end I closed my eyes tight and honestly thought maybe this is it.     Then, it just stopped, there was stillness.    

Like probably half the city our torches had no batteries.    In fact the torch we used to keep in the bedroom wasn't even there.   In the dark we went to find our boys to see if they were safe.  A strong aftershock sent us all back under cover.  

 We struggled by light of cell phones to find clothes and shoes to protect from broken glass.   We didn't explore much but the house seemed intact.  

 Convinced our luck may not hold I went into manic mode to find blankets, and things we might need if the house did go.    Fruit from the bowl, bottles filled with water.   We found candles and set them up outside on a table.    We'd lost power but amazingly cell phones and landlines worked.     We talked to family and friends, called out to neighbours, and just stood out there in the chill waiting for light.

And that has been this week;   waiting and worry.     We don't have big gashes in our footpaths; most houses in my neighbourhood just have chimneys or fences down.    Our 1920's bungalow survived with hardly even cracks in the plaster.

 But I have felt fear and dread here I never thought possible.     I know I am lucky. We are incredibly lucky to have been left so unscathed but we are definitely not unscarred. 

I recognise in myself and my friends the probably classic signs of trauma.   We are restless, sometimes tearful, and cannot focus.  I still delay sleeping as long as possible because I don't want to be in bed in the dark.   And every night  sleep has been interrupted.   

 But just as the tremors don't seem to stop, what has been so heartening is that nor has the city.  

Who could not feel inspired by the way thousands have just got back to it.   By the resilience of those who lost the most?   How could you not admire the courage of emergency services, officials,  and  the media for working so hard despite personal risk and circumstance.  

 Probably like a lot of others,  in those first few days I wondered if I would want to stay in Christchurch after this;   if I will ever again come to feel truly safe here.     As the aftershocks have begun to lessen, I think i know the answer.

 And I'm not saying this is a sign or anything,   but of cupboards full of china and crystal the only thing that fell to the floor in our kitchen was an old biscuit tin with Winston Churchill on the lid.   Our quake hit Sept 4^th.   Sept 3^rd in the UK  in 1939,  basically the same day,  Britain had declared war on Germany.    Churchill stayed in London through the Blitz to inspire that city.   "If you are going through hell, "he wrote ".. Keep going."   "You only have to endure to conquer."

Keri Harkness/ freelance journalist, producer based in Christchurch

A Week Cancelled

 By Becky Conway.

We are lucky.

Our chimney and some ornaments were smashed.

So we, like many others, are so very lucky.

We are however unsettled. However much we would like to ignore the earthquake which frightened us out of our beds early in the morning on Saturday the 4^th of September, life is not quite normal. I can best describe this in two parallel weeks - one is the real lived week that is actually happening. The other is the week that should have been which is marked precisely on the calendar. This is a week of cancellations.

 Saturday was of course the big one. No one could expect to be normal on Saturday. We didn't even question that Joe's swimming lesson would be cancelled. This was a given. Stay at home, clean up the mess. The thought of a swimming lesson was ridiculous. On Saturday afternoon someone rang from church to tell us that due to a large crack in the church's brick bell tower, Sunday's mass would be at 9:15 (rather that 9:00am) at another church. We did go to mass on Sunday, but I couldn't concentrate. The large building made me feel nervous. I found myself checking for cracks, checking the crucifix to see if it was swinging. I couldn't wait to leave.

 On Monday, school was cancelled. As far as we knew, this was just for 2 days. Work was cancelled for me because my foot was squashed under a falling filing cabinet during the quake and it was too painful and sore to be pacing a hospital ward. I spent a lot of the day with my foot resting on a stool. Another phone call from work, to say that the course I was to give a lecture at for CPIT on Thursday had been cancelled. Not postponed, Cancelled. I was rather relieved, as in all the fright I had completely forgotten about it and would have been ill prepared. Phil's work was also cancelled as his council office had been commandeered for more essential services. The weather was beautiful, and the children in the neighbourhood all played football on our lawn and tried to forget.

 On Tuesday we heard that school would be out until Thursday for public health as well as structural reasons. The piano teacher rang and cancelled my daughter's piano lesson. She sounded frazzled. She was going to stay with a friend. I decided to take matters into my own hands a home school the children. Phil was called in to work in the afternoon. He was uncancelled because he is a surveyor and there is important work to be done to measure where everything in this city has moved to.

 On Wednesday Phil went to work. Then there was a particularly hard after shock. If we hadn't experienced the 7.1 shock on Saturday, no one would have had the cheek to call this an aftershock. It shook a lamp to the floor with half a pot on undrunk espresso (a sinful waste in my book as the quake had already fractured a wedding present jar of ground coffee on Saturday). Phil's uncancelled day at work was suddenly cancelled. "Go home and be with your families" said the boss. We again had a session of home school. We also spent some of the day with my sister Penny in Bishopdale where it looks as if there was never any earthquake, except that nothing is normal. In the afternoon we noticed the grim faced parents supervising their children at play in the park. What were their cancellations? Penny had a message for us from Jimmy the guitar teacher - his house is broken and the water from his tap is brown. He is too distracted to teach Joe the guitar on Thursday, so he'll cancel. He is off to play a gig in Riverton, about as far from tremors as you can get.

 I checked the email in the evening. More cancellations. The Dunkley's craft show, Scouts on Thursday evening, the Scout garage sale on Saturday (who would want to come anyway?), the St Albans Swim Club meeting for planning the new season. And by the way somewhere along the line school is cancelled until Monday.

 And sadly, as an after thought, I think I might have to cancel my entry in the Auckland marathon in October. My foot is painful, and all running seems to be cancelled until further notice.

Governors Bay resident John Fountain

Governors Bay resident John Fountain wrote to The Press to say he spent the "scariest 40 seconds of my life underneath a door jamb when the massive wave of energy swept across the Plains and met with an immovable rock fortress (the Port Hills)".

``We woke suddenly to an awful booming sound and a fierce persistent shaking of our house.

``In the three to four seconds that it took us to get out of bed and under the door jamb the noise grew to a thunderous roar. The house was shaking so violently that we could hardly keep our feet. We reached the door jamb and held on for dear life.

``I was terrified and disoriented after being woken suddenly from a deep sleep. Five seconds stretched to 10 seconds, then another 10. Meanwhile the aggressive forces surrounding us, increased in their fury.

``I expected the shaking to stop. I wanted it to stop. Quakes I'd been through in California in years gone by and in the mountains here in New Zealand roll through for a few seconds, sometimes with a short jolt, and then die out. Not this one!

``Within about 5 meters of our bedroom door there is an exit. I knew we should get outside.

``As suddenly as it started, after 40 seconds or so (it seemed much longer than that at the time), it stopped. Grabbing clothes, coats and shoes, we ran downstairs  and out the front door to the driveway, to safety. Our driveway on a cold winter's night was safe - our house was not.
 
``I managed to get the garage door open and find a gas lantern. With the light breaking the surrounding darkness, neighbors called out: 'Are you ok?', 'Yes, we're fine, you?', 'Ok'.

``Dawn came all too slowly, but ventured back into our houses.
 
``Our houses, our homes, had been stolen from us in the dead of the night. I am still afraid as I walk through our bedroom and hallway now. We might have died there.

Quake, a poem sent in by Darryn John Murphy

Silent was my world that morn
Waiting on the light of drawn
Then with vengeance mother speaks
I hear her, frown beneath my feet!
 
The windows rattled in the light
As I was thrown around, in morning flight
Shaken earth, had purged my fear
The hallowed whisper, like the end was near!
 
Then I witnessed, as the lights grew dim
Flickering on and off at earthly whims
Then the world was thrown into the dark
And I was fearful for my heart!
 
To wander in the darkened void
To feel as if my life essence was destroyed
Was in it my destiny?
To walk among the heavens in ecstasy!
 
While I wrote this, my world was shaking
Only difference! today there light and nothing breaking
In the darkness, I felt my heart
And there was silence in the dark
 
Waiting for the sun to rise
Tired and weakened, compromised!
Was there rubble in the streets?
And would I walk, with earthly feet!

Quake can't stop dream wedding

Phil Beattie married his bride Raukura Spindler on Saturday and, like most of Christchurch, both were woken with the quake.

Beattie said he was on the phone to Raukura, who was staying at her mother's house, to see if she was OK.

``I said to Raukura that it did not matter where we got married because I loved her and the setting didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, as long as she was there.''
 
``Rob, the Minister was very confident that even though we would be able to have the ceremony somewhere.
 
``Hair and make up for the girls proved to be particularly challenging. With no power using curling irons, blow driers etc was out.
 
``Our photographer Todd, from New Regent Photography, was still on board as well and worked like a trooper.
 
``The best man and groomsmanwere able to pick up the flowers and deliver them safely.

``The energy levels were pretty low once it got to the reception but everyone that made it had a great time. There were a few from out of town that had their flights cancelled and there were a few from in town that were feeling very shaken up or that couldn't get there due to the damage on the roads.
 
``All and all, it was a wonderful day just not the day that we had planned. What made the day was the people that helped us get through it.''

Australian visitors impressed

We were visiting Christchurch from Sydney at the time of the earthquake and were impressed by the quick response of authorities with regard to restoring power and water to those areas that they could, the marking off of dangerous areas around the city, and the overall good humour of every day Kiwis to assist everyone and anyone despite their own situation. 

The calmness of the Police in directing and assisting people along the roads, especially around the airport etc was excellent.

As a former resident of Christchurch I had experienced previous earthquakes however this one was the worst experience and the aftershocks frightening.

We had to evacuate our rented city apartment accommodation due to flooding etc, however we were immediately contacted by the owner of the apartment and offered 'refuge' in his private home even though he was travelling up north at the time.  We were very grateful for this generous offer to us and it was a relief to be somewhere safe. 

 We have now returned to Sydney, somewhat earlier than expected, however we want to pass on our good wishes and gratitude, and good luck to all in the days and weeks ahead.

Kathy & Malcolm Moore

Another pair of modern day survivors dedicaetd this YouTube rap to those who lost power after the event.

Have you got stories, videos, photos to share? Email reporters@press.co.nz.

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