Jackie and her husband Boyd live just outside Christchurch and I’ve spent all day worrying about them and hoping they were ok. Finally tonight, Jackie managed sent a group email to all of us who were waiting for news. It’s show below – please read it because it shows real Kiwi grit and humour in an appalling situation. It’s both sad and funny at the same time.
“Thank you all so much for your very kind messages.
This has been a devastating disaster for our city. They are expecting the deaths to be somewhere between 300 and 400. At the moment they are concentrating on trying to save people who are still alive buried in the rubble and are just leaving the dead in the streets to be identified and dealt with later.
The city looks like a bomb site and flooded streets in the suburbs from liquefaction and burst water pipes.
Rhys had a very lucky escape as he was in a big city building next door to one of the buildings which collapsed. He walked home afterwards wading through water and stinking sand which bubbled up out of the ground everywhere.
We were so pleased to have him and Shannon here last night and they plan to come back again tonight. They have no water or power so nothing to drink and can’t use their lavatories . Jennifer is with her mother. At least men can urinate in the garden and they might get a superior crop of tomatoes!
We are so lucky here in Rangiora with both power and water and sewer working. Boyd went to the supermarket at 8am to buy milk and things and the place was seething with people. All shops in Christchurch are closed so Christchurch people are arriving here to stock up bread milk and perishable food before it all runs out. This also happened after the September earthquake. The supermarket ware -houses all suffered so much damage from the shake that for weeks we had big food shortages.
The after shakes are so much worse here in Rangiora this time. We have had 50 so far between 3.5 and 5.5 they are very frightening and we had very little sleep last night.
The problem seems to be because this time the shake though less magnitude was so shallow (only 5ks) and so much closer to us and Christchurch.
Now I better go and do some chores. Boyd and I are Ok but feel very shaken and tired but also feel so lucky and are counting our blessings”
Tough cookies these Kiwis!
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