Back online today, woo hoo!
Welcome to my little piece of Earthquake.
My Miss 4 and I were home on Tuesday at one oclock when I had just sat down after putting her to bed. She was tired, and was almost asleep. As the quake started, I ran through to her room, getting tossed very roughly into the door jam, whilst the door slammed into me from the other side. Ouch. I have a substantial bruise to show for it, but I got to my girl and got to the door with her, when another wave of shaking caused us to stop and draw breath in the doorway. We were lucky, we escaped and spent the rest of the day trying to steady nerves and get to the school to get my son.... Now we are through our first six days post Quake. Our city lies in ruins of twisted metal, concrete and bricks. There are missing, and at this stage, the numbers of dead climb as they are found amidst the rubble of the buildings in our central city. The country and the world waits to hear news of loved ones, and we wait to see what will become of our city, what the future will hold for Cantabrians. We stay strong because we have to be.
Photos will follow, I have many and varied, but for now, I have clean up to do, children to keep busy. School is closed for at least two weeks... Lots to do...
Things have been hectic, awesome, scary, sad, tiring and there has been a lot of waiting... so patience has been tested. We have our power back on today which is amazing.
We lost our water again though because after getting it back on day four, it was very slow pressure, due to local leaks, so theyve turned it off to locate them and fix it...
My toilet was cracked right through the *S* bend, so I have a new throne (landlord is a plumber!)...
One of the things that is scarce in Canterbury at the moment, is toilets... toilet seats... and of course staples like flour/rice/milk powder... Lots of people are panicked about the prospect of further aftershocks, but honestly... preparedness is best. Thank god for my stored drygoods in my survival kit. There is still more I can have or do to be prepared, and by god or by goodness --- next time I will be even better prepared!
God Bless the Salvation Army who arrived tonight and delivered to us, a much appreciated food parcel that was like manna from Heaven.
Also, BIG THANKS my darling extended family with their 20 litre water containers filled with Templeton water supply water that means it is clean and ready to drink. All other water is considered contaminated and needs to be double boiled - that is, bring to the boil, cool, then boil again before drinking... Or add 1 tsp of bleach per 10 litres of water, leave 30 minutes before using... Family arrived with these containers full, and delivered them down my street to my neighbours ... who are fantastic, and we have really seen each other right over the past six days.
THANKS to the darling men who stood at the corner in the sun today and cooked sausages in bread for us, giving away free sausages/bread/sauce/fruit and lollipops... So nice to eat something hot that you didnt have to cook yourself... and theyre back tomorrow... BLESS YOU!
HUGE THANKS!!! To ROCKGAS/CONTACT ENERGY for giving away - yes GIVING US FREE LPG... As people who have had to depend on LPG for their cooking/heating at the moment, this was AWESOME... Im so grateful, even if it took us 4 hours in line to get our bottles filled... YOU ROCK!
Ya know, its been a hellish week. The highs, the lows... theres been plenty of tears, lots of hugs, meeting new people, lots of giving, some taking, and lots of sharing. The best and the worst of it all.
Sometimes Ive found it so easy to get through the day but mostly Ive been constantly wondering what to do next. The instinctual thing kicked in for the first three or four days. Today I crashed. The adrenalin carries you only so far, and we are all tired and a bit stiff and sore.
But we are alive.
We have each other, we have food, and everyone is working together to help one another through. Its nice to walk down the street and see people getting out there to start clearing the liquifaction, or chatting to one another, clearing things, some helping to pack up to move on. Theres a lot of our street who have moved out for now... who can blame them? Not me. If I had somewhere to go, I might go, but then Id only have to come back eventually to face what needs to be done. For now Im good. We are the lucky ones. We have hope. And the sun is shining. We'll get there :-)
Love to You and Yours
Keep your loved ones close,
EButterfly
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