A bit shaken

Hey guys,

1 pm:

This comes as a break from the tales of my travels during January and early February, but something just happened that I want to tell you about in real time. I was in an earthquake. Now, some of you know that I spent the first few years of my life in southern California, where earthquakes are a fact of life. Others of you who’ve already talked to me know that I’ve also experienced a couple of earthquakes (no larger than a 4 on the Richter scale) during orientation here. These smaller earthquakes are aftershocks of the 7.1 on September 4th that damaged many of the historical buildings in downtown Christchurch, but injured only a few. The earthquakes I experienced before today were reminiscent of a very large bus driving by.

I don’t yet know what the magnitude of this one was that I’ve just experienced and I can’t even begin to describe it properly. At 12:51 pm, as soon as I dove under my desk the building began to violently shake. I don’t know how to describe what it feels like to have the building moving back and forth underneath you. A couple minutes later, I finally felt brave enough to venture out from under my desk. Internet was gone, power was out, both toilets were leaking, the fridge and cupboards were tossed open and a bottle of oil was shattered on the floor. The only ones home, my flat mate Gabby and I just stood there, guessing at the magnitude and remarking on what a large and scary aftershock it was. We had no idea what a big deal it was, or what would soon follow.

…hold on, someone’s knocking at the door … I’ll bet it’s the RA again.

a couple hours later:

So, a few large aftershocks and several smaller ones later, all students living in these apartments have been herded outside, led in succession to various destinations around the complexes with very scant information, and are now clustered on open grassy spaces and near doorways to ground-level apartments. One flat mate went into hysterics, fleeing to the arms of the nearest strong, attractive man. I got a quick call through to my mom to make sure she knew I was alive, but the phone networks are a mess. Text messages are arriving in multiples of 6, or not at all. People are being advised to keep network use to a minimum and only use texting in hopes of keeping the lines clear for people trapped in buildings to call for help.

I’ll continue updating this entry as the day goes on, but for now I’m going to wander about the apartment complex in the drizzling rain.

Around 5 pm:

I’ve been spending the past couple hours sitting in a neighbor’s car listening to the radio. Not a pastime that is healthy for the nerves, but one of the only things I can bring myself to do at the moment.

If you’ve read/seen a news report on it recently, you’ll already know that the quake was magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale, at a (shallow) depth of 5 kilometers below the earth’s surface, and only 10k southwest of the city center. As of now, there have been at least 8 severe aftershocks between magnitude 4.3 and 5.7, and countless aftershocks every few minutes. The radio keeps repeating the same news over and over, but we’ve heard that the cathedral spire and roof have collapsed along with numerous other buildings in the city center, and Lyttelton at the epicenter of the quake has been devastated. It sounds like hundreds are trapped/wounded/possibly dead.

There are a few factors that made this quake so much more devastating than the September quake. It was shallower, much closer to the city center and happened during a time when the city was packed with people. The September earthquake happened on a Saturday morning, when most people were still in bed. The worst injuries involved heart attacks among the elderly and lacerations from broken glass. So far, we still can’t say how many are dead or how many still trapped will be rescued alive. We are the world’s front-line news and yet we can’t see what is happening. If it weren’t for the continuous aftershocks, I wouldn’t be able to tell that anything bad had happened. The area around the apartments is virtually unharmed, apart from broken oil bottles and things fallen from shelves.

Late in the evening:

I can’t stop thinking. My apartment got power (but no internet) back about six hours after the initial quake, and my flat mate Elizabeth and I cleaned up the oil, started boiling water for drinking, and ate dinner. I had to turn off the TV, I just can’t keep watching the same footage of buildings falling, wounded people and flooded streets. I feel helpless and my nerves are shot.

6:30 am:

I’ve finally decided that sleep is futile. My third floor apartment is prone to magnifying every little aftershock, and after leaping awake for at least the 7^th time I’ve just given up on getting any sleep.

That evening: Springfield

I spent the morning walking around with first my flat mate Elizabeth, and then a couple of other IES kids. Most stores are closed, the streets are all but deserted, but there was a little bakery giving away fresh bread next to the supermarket. We heard a rumor that the uni was willing to fly all international students to Wellington or Auckland, free lodging and food until campus was ready to open again. Then we heard from Eunice, our program coordinator that IES was arranging for all of us to return to Smylies, the hostel in Springfield where we stayed during our orientation a couple weeks ago. Most of the IES kids had already hopped on a bus to Nelson, so there are only nine of us staying here.

It is difficult to accept that I can have this dry roof, warm food and uncontaminated water when there are so many people still in Christchurch without any of this, when there are people mourning lost loved ones and rescue crews still working through fire, rain, rubble and exhaustion to recover bodies. Now that I’m away from the disaster zone, I just want to go back and help, but I do not know how I can. I cannot even start to think about how lucky I am. Lucky that I had planned a Skype date with my mom that morning. Lucky that I didn’t just hop the bus into the city or to the tramping tracks when I was done with class at 9 am, something I was so close to doing. There were two buses crushed just by the city Bus Exchange – somewhere I had been nearly every day this past week. There was an international student from Samoa who died on one of those buses. I just can’t stop thinking about the many ways I was almost among the injured or dead, but for lucky chance.

I do not know what the next weeks will bring. I do not know when the uni will reopen, or whether I will be transferred to another school. I do not know how long it will take for Christchurch to recover – this city that I have only known and loved for such a brief amount of time. I appreciate the messages of love and support that I’ve gotten over email and facebook.

Continue to hold Christchurch in your thoughts during this tragedy. I love you all. 

Chloe