Earthquake watch…BIG TIME! 04.38 Saturday 4 September 2010
I was sleeping away all peaceful and for once very nice and well, when I all oft he sudden get shaken to the ground.. or rather shaken BY the ground. I woke up and thought some druken bastards from the pub had decided to shake my van and wake me up… but the next thought that came into my head was, EARTHQUAKE! Shit it really IS an earthquake. Guess I better wake up and get out of my van… hmmm, easier said then done with the doors frozen stuck… hmmmm, again! Guess I might as well just stay put here and let Mother Earth rock my world and enjoy it!
I could hear my friends from the house talking away rather upset outside and thought I should get out there and join them.. but the doors were frozen stuck and I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get outside. The quake must have been about 10 minutes and in the van it felt like at least 10 people was standing outside it and rocking it back and forth and to the sides as well as jumping up and down on the roof.. It was moving in all possible directions.
The earthquake was measured to an 7,2 and is one of the bigger in NZ in a long time. The damage in Springfield wasn’t all that big. The pub lost it’s chimney and, sure a lot of alcohol, bottles that fell to the floor and of course a lot of glass. But not much more then that, and the loss of power for a few hours. The epicentre was only 30 km away from us and about 40 km from Christchurch, but there the damage was much bigger. I travelled through the city today to check it out and the streets were busy with other curious people like me with their cameras, photographing the broken chimneys fallen to the ground, walls bending out in the wrong direction and whole houses fallen to the ground. There was a lot of damage! Some street was totally closed and most of city centre was closed off. Some of the streets had big cracks in the asphalt and
one could see some collections of water here and there from pipes that had broke.
No one was killed and only a few was hurt by the quake, but there is much work to do to re-build and repair. Its going to take a long time.
For me, it was an interesting feeling of a first earthquake. I have a big respect for Mother Earth and her need to breath and reset herself sometimes. We just need to accept how small and insignificant we are when she tells us off.