The Christchurch Earthquake part 1

We've just got power back - have had phone most of the time, so here's what's happened in Christchurch Central in the last 10 hours.

At about 445 am I was jolted awake, and instantly knew what was happening.  

 It was noisy, and my first instinct was to throw the covers over my head in case the glass lamp in the ceiling broke.  My  next instinct was to head for the door frame.  I slipped on the floor and bumped my knee, and must have hit the light switch by accident as the lights came on, and then off again immediately as we lost power.

The house I live in in Edgeware Road is a California Bungalow.  We get the house shaking a bit with traffic, and the piles have sunk on one side so we get movement anyway - and the house shimmied back and forth on its foundations, but as it was dark - very dark - it was hard to see.

 The first thing that came to mind was the voice of Peter Elliot in the Get Thru ads came through - "Get Ready, Get Through", and I thought "This is the Big One", coupled with the knowledge that I wasn't as ready as I could be, and then an assessment of the situation and what we do next. 

The quake itself was a bit like a fairground ride, or keeping your feet on a ship in swells.  It was a whole lot like nothing  the earthquake simulator at Te Papa - in fact having been in there and heard the noise it was just like that, and that experience was quite helpful - took the fear out. 

We weren't panicked - in fact I wouldn't say I was ever frightened, although I was pretty high on adrenaline.  The fact that it was immediately apparent what was happening and it was like the Te Papa simulator, meant that my mind was on what the best thing to do was.   

Hooray for earthquake drill in primary school in Wainuiomata  - I was grateful for it.   As soon as the initial quake subsided, we'd found  torches and I went straight to the phone books (yes - they do have a use!)  The White Pages didn't have anything any more, but the Yellow Pages still do - and we followed the advice to turn off power at the mains.  We had an odd buzzing noise that we couldn't place near the heat pump - but it wasn't the external pump or the internal, and wondered if it was the DVS.

Our lovely neighbour knocked on the door and checked in on us. 

I was mostly concerned for my parents and niece and nephew.  Soon as it subsided I rang parents, then sister,  then realised that I probably shouldn't be on the phone.   Phones overloaded shortly after, although we never really lost phones.  My mobile could send texts intermittently.    The hardest thing was not knowing what was going on -  I've lost my mobile headphones and didn't have a radio with batteries.

It was very cold - opening the door I could see the Southern Cross and the pointers on the horizon - a beautiful starry night, and it's been followed by a beautiful spring day, with people in the streets.