I was originally planning to write an actual proper "one year on" post about this, but since my blog has gained quite a large number of new readers since February 22nd, 2011, I figured I would repost what I wrote about what happened, and write another entry tomorrow-ish about everything that’s happened since.
Indescribable
I’m writing this post at 10:35pm the day after the earthquake, but I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to post it.
I SO wanted to be all articulate and descriptive and awesome as I wrote this, but I can’t. I’m just not in that headspace.
As I wrote the post about September 4th, 2010, I never in a million years expected that just under 6 months later, I would be writing yet another, even more serious, earthquake post. But life happened, and I am.
At about 12:45pm yesterday, I went into a lecturer’s office at TColl to chat to her about an assignment. We had just sat down and started to talk, when we felt a little jolt. I thought "Oh there goes another aftershock; haven’t felt one of those in awhile."
The jolt never stopped. A pot plant on her filing cabinet flung off and smashed on the floor.
Oh holy shit this is even bigger1!
She and I jumped up and ran for the door frame, where we stood for what would probably have been about 20 seconds, but felt like about fifteen minutes.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but I must have tensed up every muscle in my body as I stood there, as when I got outside and relaxed a bit I felt like I had been in a blender. I still do. When I looked in the mirror this morning, I noticed a thick line of bruises across my forearm.
Oh my God!
Are you ok?
I’m ok, are you?
Yes.
Right, we need to get out of here.We did. We bolted down the hallway and across a little courtyard to the main "street" of the campus. It was only later that we realised we had left our things behind. Laptops, cellphones, keys, wallets, irreplaceable course notes, my iPod.
I don’t know when I’ll get them back. I hope they haven’t been damaged, or ruined by fire sprinklers which may or may not have activated. I KNOW they’re only things, but they’re MY things, and, selfish though I may be, I’ll feel a lot better once I have retrieved them. Strange how much your purse is "part of you".My things were finally returned to me, absolutely fine and undamaged, on March 11th.Once we got outside, people were everywhere. I asked my lecturer "What are we even supposed to do?" and she told me that everybody was supposed to gather out on the playing field away from trees or buildings which may collapse.
Hearing this, I ran off towards a group of people spilling out of the cafeteria. "Go to the field!", I shouted – waving my arms and hearing my voice louder, and steadier, than I expected it to be. Surprisingly, since I wasn’t wearing any official clothing identifying me as someone who knew what they were doing, people listened to me, and soon a large crowd had gathered.
The VC of the college arrived and shouted as loudly as she could to tell everybody that so far, no major injuries had been reported on campus, and that the best thing for everybody to do was to go home, check on their houses and families and listen to the radio for info from Civil Defense or the Police.
As she spoke, the first aftershock hit. It was huge. I grabbed the people on either side of me and watched the grass literally roll in waves under our feet. I’d heard about that happening, but this was the first time I had actually seen it. A power pole beside the field swayed precariously.They say that in situations like this there’s often one, single moment that sticks with you forever and defines the whole experience. I think this was mine.
Because I do not drive, and did not have my cellphone to call anyone to come and get me, I asked around to see if someone else was going to the suburb in which I live. Fortunately somebody was, so she and I and another girl got into her car and drove away from campus.
On the way to my house we stopped several times. Once to drop the other girl off, once to see whether dad had left his office to come home (he had) and once so I could check on a friend of mine who I knew would most likely be home on her own.
She was, and when she opened her door to see me standing there she grabbed me, hugged me tightly, and told me she had been texting and phoning me several times.
By then I was really wishing I had my phone, and beginning to feel very guilty for NOT replying to messages and "making people worry" about me – even though I know that once again, this is illogical.
When we left her house, we stopped off at the retirement village the woman’s parents live in, to see that they were ok, which they were. I tried to call my house from the landline there, which was working, but I couldn’t get through.
Traffic all through Christchurch was a nightmare. It took us about 5 minutes to move 100 metres.
Two and a half hours later we finally got to my house. My parents told me that they had called and texted me multiple times, but eventually worked out that I must have lost my cellphone somehow. They also told me that Jenny and Lorraine and their families were ok, as they had spoken to them while calling around all my friends to see if they had heard from me.
My parents, cat and house are fine. Mum had just gotten home from the supermarket and was sitting in her car on the driveway when it happened, and dad had been in his office and actually just stayed sitting at his desk! His assistant had been walking down the hallway and had been knocked over, but was all right. Fortunately, Poppy was inside at the time and ran and hid under my parents bed. Smart cat.
Our house has a bit of minor/moderate damage, but on the whole we’re really lucky. At the time of writing this, our power has just come back on, but the water is still off and probably will be for quite some time.
No more energy to write stuff today. More tomorrow – maybe. In the meantime, I leave you with this video, to show you what Christchurch WAS. Maybe, in a year or two or three, I’ll be showing you another one, of what has been salvaged and rebuilt.
- Than the 7.1 in September last year. It turns out that it wasn’t, it was 6.3, but the effect on the city was MUCH worse because it happened in the middle of the day this time. [↩]
