All shook up

[homegrown]

Well we had an earthquake in canterbury New zealand, and its done considerable damage, thankfully no loss of life but many of christchurch's beautiful old buildings may have to be condemmed as with quite a few houses. So if you can spare a thought for those who are now have to build or find new homes

[Millymollymandy]

My OH heard it on the radio and asked if I had any relos down there and I said no but thought of you Richard. Actually now I think of it I think my cousin might live there but not sure , she was in Brissy for decades.

Hope everything will be back to normal for you soon re electricity etc and I'm sorry about the damage to the city's buildings.

[Rosendula]

Oh dear! This is the first I've heard of it. So sorry for all the stress everyone is now suffering. Best wishes to you, your family, friends, and neighbours.

[old tree man]

All the best to you Richard, and our positve waves go to anyone affected

[Green Aura]

Glad you're all OK honey.

Buildings, at least, can be replaced.

Are earthquakes common in NZ?

Anyone heard from Jed?

[fran]

Have just been reading about the earthquake. I am glad you are all okay and thoughts are with those who lost their homes.

[Keaniebean]

Glad you are all safe and well Homegrown. I have not seen anything about this as I haven't watched any TV for a while. Sending over some hugs and positive thoughts for all those affected.xxx

[homegrown]

Jeds in auckland i think which wasn't affected but ratsny and sky both live in canterbury so i hope their okay, thanks for your thoughts guys

[frozenthunderbolt]

Yah thanks guys I'm just nw of Auckland and we were fine - physically fine - didn't feel it. mentally shook up tho - have gotten out my list of lists again and am look at what preps I need to get sorted next.
Glad to hear you're mostly ok Homegrown

[123sologne]

I am glad to hear you are okay.
I saw news of it yesterday morning on Sky web-site. It did look terrible. I hope there will not be too many aftershocks.
Be safe and careful.

[Sky]

It was a huge earthquake!

I woke up to just a slight tremor and knew immediately what it was ... I was thinking sleepily that it was just a minor tremor and that I could soon drift back off to sleep but the shaking just got stronger and stronger, throwing us one way then the other.

Glass was smashing somewhere and the whole house was moving, the walls seemed to be rocking to and fro and then suddenly one wall started rocking one way and the other in the opposite direction.

I was stood up by this time at the side of the bed thinking 'sugar' maybe I should be getting my family out of the house, I don't remember running up the hallway but all I was thinking was, get to my son and tell him it was ok and it was' just' an earthquake ... the room was empty when I flung open his bedroom door and then I remembered he'd slept in his older brothers room to watch a film, I turned and headed back up the hallway but the ground was like jelly and I was being thrown into the walls, I bumped into my husband in the dark and he said I was like 'rent a panic' lol ... I wasn't panicking though, I've never been calmer, I just had one single thought in my mind, get to my son!

The noise was incredible, like a huge hurricane and express train combined!

When I got to my son he was still in bed and very wide eyed but not frightened at all, he thought it was awesome lol.

Then the quake started subsiding and we did a walk round the house inside to see what was broken, loads of glasses but amazingly nothing else ... the canary was a bit sea sick from all the rocking in his cage but we couldn't see anything else.
We did unplug everything from sockets before we headed back to bed in case of power surges.

As soon as we got back to bed there was another huge aftershock and they pretty much continued through the night.

We live near Oxford and got off very lightly compared to our friends and family in Kaiapoi and Christchurch City.

[Green Aura]

A terrifying experience - glad you're all OK

[Millymollymandy]

Wow I'm amazed you were calm enough to just go back to bed - I know I wouldn't have! Glad you are OK! The only earthquake I have experienced when living near Geneva was like the rumble of a huge lorry going past your house which makes it shake but we lived up a long private drive so we knew something funny was going on and we were in the basement so we went upstairs fast! The next day there was one in north Africa measuring another point on the Richter scale and it demolished the town. Amazing the difference between a 5 and a 6, which is why I could never understand how there was damage at 3 in England that time a few years ago, as a 5 point something did no damage in Geneva and in fact amongst people being interiewed on the radio a lot hadn't even noticed it!

[pelmetman]

Must be very frightening and hope everyone is all OK.

We had an earthquake in Lincolnshire a few years ago and although it was a long way from us it still woke us up in the night. Of course it wasn't until the next morning on hearing the news we realised what it had been. At the time I thought we had burglars trying to break in.

Also experienced one whilst living in Essex, although thankfully most of the ones in this Country are only minor they do happen. Our last house, which was very old, was kind of distorted and surveyors put that down to historic earthquake damage. It was not far from Wivenhoe
which had experienced an earthquate many moons ago and people had been killed and properties damaged.

Sue

[battybird]

Glad all out there are uninjured if shaken! My sister-in-law lives in Diamond Harbour and is over here with us at the moment but her 2 boys and husband were at home. They lost a chimney, the water tank and lots of china. The boys thought it was "exciting" Les was scared "sh******SS"