A Proper Update
Feb. 23rd, 2011 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rumpelsnorcackA Proper Update.
Yesterday when I posted I was more concerned about letting people know that we were all okay even though the city is in chaos, and even though the post itself was a little hysterical. Today I thought I should make a more detailed post. Our internet has gone down even though we still have power here so I don't even know when I'll be able to post this. But here it is. This is what happened to us, and a little bit of what has actually been affected in the city.
A friend and I were putting the final touches on a quilt we are making for a friend of ours who is having a baby, so we were sitting around her kitchen table working on that. Miss 4 was in the middle of the lounge and our other kids were all at school. When it started my initial reaction was 'earthquake, okay' but it got bigger and bigger and instead of getting under the table as usual we ran to get Miss 4 and get out the door. The shaking was incredibly violent and we were thrown off our feet and through a sliding door into their porch. Poor Miss 4 was very upset because she ended on the bottom of the pile and I'm pretty sure there were some very bad words said by both me and my friend. We got outside and sat in the middle of the lawn until the ground stopped shaking. It took a really long time and we were all shaking and upset. Tears were had and not just byMiss 4. Afterwards we were pretty nonchalant about the whole thing because in our immediate surrounds it didn't seem so bad. There was a bit of road damage and it was hard to navigate our way out to get to school to collect the boys but it wasn't particularly awful. We even wondered if it was centred under her house because she had some big-ish cracks in her driveway and the area itself was a bit torn up.
The closer we got to school, however, the more we realised it was worse than we had thought. By the end of the street I live on there was flooding and, though we didn't know it, liquefaction all over. We had to navigate around some pretty deep holes in the roads and no-one could see them so some cars had got stuck. We had to park in almost knee deep water to get in and get the kids out. They had to leave with nothing as they weren't allowed to go back inside the school to get their bags or anything. I was in the car with Miss 4 while my friend went in to get the boys and all I could see was a huge amount of water gushing out of the field so I suspect that even if schools are allowed back next week ours will be a bit longer than that. We already closed one day last week because of a broken water main down the road (which has now gone again) so this doesn't look like good news for getting back to normal. We hadn't gone far down the road to try and get out when we got stuck in deep liquefaction. The car is still there and we have no way at all of getting it out without some sort of a tow job. That meant we had to walk home through ankle deep mud and water, some of it contaminated with sewerage. The kids were very upset and some needed to be carried over some of the holes and deeper parts of the mud. We hooked up with another guy and his son who live near my friend and we came across some elderly people who were in a totally flooded house and couldn't get out with their wheelchair. We tried to help them but they were in so much shock they had no idea what they needed or wanted to do. It was so hard to know what to do because we had very young, very upset children and needed to get them home, so we offered some advice and had to carry on.
At home we ended up getting our emergency kit and some water from my house before heading over to my friends' house as it's bigger and more solid. The kids alternately played and explored the damage in the neighbourhood while we sat in the garage and listened to the radio. I spent a lot of time on twitter while I could because the best information was coming through via my US friends who had better access to news than we did. The radio was helpful but a lot of it was the same info repeated whereas the overseas news sites seemed to be getting more variety of news. Text messages were only very sporadic but within 2 hours we'd had contact at least once from all our closest family and friends which was good, though I wasn't getting any updated accounts from my husband who was right in the city. By the time he got home my mother had come to get us to go back to their house so we all squeezed (VERY illegally but we figured they had other things to deal with than us doing that) into their car and headed over there, stopping to try and get our own car out but being unsuccessful (though I just got word from Hubby that the car is out and at home, wheels need realigning but it's home and in one piece so thank goodness for that).
During all this time aftershocks were rolling through. By 9pm when we got the kids to bed there had been at least four 5+ shocks and well over twenty 4+ so while this was technically an aftershock of the September quake, it's having its own series of aftershocks. I guess we all know what that means – a few more weeks of sleepless nights and rocky days. I tried to get some sleep from about 12.30 but at 1.30 when I was so tense I wasn't going to sleep I decided to go into the room where the kids were because we'd left a light on for them, so I sat on twitter and skype all night til around 4am when I dozed for a couple of hours. Miss 4 and Mr 6 woke up every time a shock rolled through and both needed a cuddle so it was good I was in there anyway. But now, just over 24 hours after the quake, I am so tired I want to curl into a ball but I'm still so keyed up that I don't expect I'll be able to sleep even if I lie down.
This time the damage in the city is massive. There are two buildings that are definitely down with many people trapped inside, one on fire, and several more that probably also have people inside. They have just given word that they are moving on from one of the collapsed buildings because there is 'zero chance' of any more survivors because of the fire and the gas leak. It's incredibly sad because of how many people were in there (latest reports of about 50). The official death toll is sitting at 75 with 300 missing, and it's almost certain to rise. The cathedral spire is down and they know there were people in there inspecting the tower and also on the viewing platform. They are almost certainly dead. It's just so devastating to think about. The news pictures are unreal – I can't really comprehend the scale of what is going on out there.
My kids are doing quite well – the instinctive play around earthquakes has kicked in, with Mr 6 drawing quakes in his book and Miss 4 building block houses and knocking them down in 'aftershocks' she also just drew some aftershocks and people with blood in her scrapbook. They get excited every time a shock comes through but other than that they are just watching Cartoon Network and relaxing. In some ways this is a good day for them because they never get to watch TV that much, plus they are supposed to be at school so it's like a holiday for them. I am a bit worried about how things are at school actually. There was water gushing out of the field as we drove away, so there's some sort of damage there, plus another friend said she had a look around as she picked up her kids and she said there's a bit of damage there. That means that I guess we won't be back anytime soon so the poor kids will either have to be relocated or wait til the school can be fixed up. On the other hand, when we went back to try and get the car out the first time there were people setting tents up on the back field, so at least parts of the field must be okay.
Anyway, that's us at the moment. I'll keep adding to this until I get internet back and can post it.
Yesterday when I posted I was more concerned about letting people know that we were all okay even though the city is in chaos, and even though the post itself was a little hysterical. Today I thought I should make a more detailed post. Our internet has gone down even though we still have power here so I don't even know when I'll be able to post this. But here it is. This is what happened to us, and a little bit of what has actually been affected in the city.
A friend and I were putting the final touches on a quilt we are making for a friend of ours who is having a baby, so we were sitting around her kitchen table working on that. Miss 4 was in the middle of the lounge and our other kids were all at school. When it started my initial reaction was 'earthquake, okay' but it got bigger and bigger and instead of getting under the table as usual we ran to get Miss 4 and get out the door. The shaking was incredibly violent and we were thrown off our feet and through a sliding door into their porch. Poor Miss 4 was very upset because she ended on the bottom of the pile and I'm pretty sure there were some very bad words said by both me and my friend. We got outside and sat in the middle of the lawn until the ground stopped shaking. It took a really long time and we were all shaking and upset. Tears were had and not just byMiss 4. Afterwards we were pretty nonchalant about the whole thing because in our immediate surrounds it didn't seem so bad. There was a bit of road damage and it was hard to navigate our way out to get to school to collect the boys but it wasn't particularly awful. We even wondered if it was centred under her house because she had some big-ish cracks in her driveway and the area itself was a bit torn up.
The closer we got to school, however, the more we realised it was worse than we had thought. By the end of the street I live on there was flooding and, though we didn't know it, liquefaction all over. We had to navigate around some pretty deep holes in the roads and no-one could see them so some cars had got stuck. We had to park in almost knee deep water to get in and get the kids out. They had to leave with nothing as they weren't allowed to go back inside the school to get their bags or anything. I was in the car with Miss 4 while my friend went in to get the boys and all I could see was a huge amount of water gushing out of the field so I suspect that even if schools are allowed back next week ours will be a bit longer than that. We already closed one day last week because of a broken water main down the road (which has now gone again) so this doesn't look like good news for getting back to normal. We hadn't gone far down the road to try and get out when we got stuck in deep liquefaction. The car is still there and we have no way at all of getting it out without some sort of a tow job. That meant we had to walk home through ankle deep mud and water, some of it contaminated with sewerage. The kids were very upset and some needed to be carried over some of the holes and deeper parts of the mud. We hooked up with another guy and his son who live near my friend and we came across some elderly people who were in a totally flooded house and couldn't get out with their wheelchair. We tried to help them but they were in so much shock they had no idea what they needed or wanted to do. It was so hard to know what to do because we had very young, very upset children and needed to get them home, so we offered some advice and had to carry on.
At home we ended up getting our emergency kit and some water from my house before heading over to my friends' house as it's bigger and more solid. The kids alternately played and explored the damage in the neighbourhood while we sat in the garage and listened to the radio. I spent a lot of time on twitter while I could because the best information was coming through via my US friends who had better access to news than we did. The radio was helpful but a lot of it was the same info repeated whereas the overseas news sites seemed to be getting more variety of news. Text messages were only very sporadic but within 2 hours we'd had contact at least once from all our closest family and friends which was good, though I wasn't getting any updated accounts from my husband who was right in the city. By the time he got home my mother had come to get us to go back to their house so we all squeezed (VERY illegally but we figured they had other things to deal with than us doing that) into their car and headed over there, stopping to try and get our own car out but being unsuccessful (though I just got word from Hubby that the car is out and at home, wheels need realigning but it's home and in one piece so thank goodness for that).
During all this time aftershocks were rolling through. By 9pm when we got the kids to bed there had been at least four 5+ shocks and well over twenty 4+ so while this was technically an aftershock of the September quake, it's having its own series of aftershocks. I guess we all know what that means – a few more weeks of sleepless nights and rocky days. I tried to get some sleep from about 12.30 but at 1.30 when I was so tense I wasn't going to sleep I decided to go into the room where the kids were because we'd left a light on for them, so I sat on twitter and skype all night til around 4am when I dozed for a couple of hours. Miss 4 and Mr 6 woke up every time a shock rolled through and both needed a cuddle so it was good I was in there anyway. But now, just over 24 hours after the quake, I am so tired I want to curl into a ball but I'm still so keyed up that I don't expect I'll be able to sleep even if I lie down.
This time the damage in the city is massive. There are two buildings that are definitely down with many people trapped inside, one on fire, and several more that probably also have people inside. They have just given word that they are moving on from one of the collapsed buildings because there is 'zero chance' of any more survivors because of the fire and the gas leak. It's incredibly sad because of how many people were in there (latest reports of about 50). The official death toll is sitting at 75 with 300 missing, and it's almost certain to rise. The cathedral spire is down and they know there were people in there inspecting the tower and also on the viewing platform. They are almost certainly dead. It's just so devastating to think about. The news pictures are unreal – I can't really comprehend the scale of what is going on out there.
My kids are doing quite well – the instinctive play around earthquakes has kicked in, with Mr 6 drawing quakes in his book and Miss 4 building block houses and knocking them down in 'aftershocks' she also just drew some aftershocks and people with blood in her scrapbook. They get excited every time a shock comes through but other than that they are just watching Cartoon Network and relaxing. In some ways this is a good day for them because they never get to watch TV that much, plus they are supposed to be at school so it's like a holiday for them. I am a bit worried about how things are at school actually. There was water gushing out of the field as we drove away, so there's some sort of damage there, plus another friend said she had a look around as she picked up her kids and she said there's a bit of damage there. That means that I guess we won't be back anytime soon so the poor kids will either have to be relocated or wait til the school can be fixed up. On the other hand, when we went back to try and get the car out the first time there were people setting tents up on the back field, so at least parts of the field must be okay.
Anyway, that's us at the moment. I'll keep adding to this until I get internet back and can post it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:32 am (UTC)The photos I've been seeing on the news are horrible. The world is upside-down all of a sudden, isn't it? Earthquakes and protests and pirates...
So glad to hear you're okay for the most part! I'm praying for you!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:34 am (UTC)I'm so sorry. It seems totally inadequate, but it's true. And I said it before, but I'm so, SO glad that you and your family are all okay.
We're thinking about y'all and sending all the good thoughts we can your way.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:56 am (UTC)I still can't quite comprehend how big this is.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 06:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 08:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 12:53 pm (UTC)((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Hugs for all ))))))))))))))))))))))
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 11:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 10:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 11:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 09:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-26 07:11 pm (UTC)I hope you do manage to get some sleep soon and that the school damage isn't too bad. I know you've got a long haul ahead of you and I want you to know that I will ALWAYS be here for you, anything you need, I'm here.
*Massive hugs for all*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-01 07:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 09:34 am (UTC)