Earthquake Part 3

Then (22 February)

Listening to radios on cell phones and intermittent Internet access had told us some details, and we heard differing instructions - don't move, go to Hagley Park. Two of us set off to walk towards the hills. A working mother with husband at home looking after the toddler decided to head home if her car was accessible, so we escorted her to Oxford Terrace to find her car unscathed. Traffic was moving slowly down Oxford Terrace and we could see it moving across the Manchester Street bridge, so we hugged her, told her to be careful and watched her drive off.

Returning to Victoria Square, we met two more colleagues to add to our group. My friend noticed a group of people in wheelchairs with carers, and we went over to check whether we could help. It was quite windy, and we thought they might get cold just sitting there so suggested that they might take turns in their minivans. Then we noticed some people huddled up in pastel coloured blankets which they had got from the Copthorne Hotel. My friend negotiated that the people in wheelchairs could also get blankets from the hotel. I was really proud of my friend for doing this - I had not even noticed the wheelchairs.

We decided that it was too cold to sit around any longer and that we would head towards Hagley Park and my car. The next installment will follow after I have done something else useful.

Now

We have water back on - hurray! We have not showered since Sunday morning, so are excited by the idea of being able to come clean.

Earthquake Part 2

Then (22 February)

We talked with other teachers we knew in the crowd and made some decision

s. My little group of four decided to head towards my car which I had parked in the Arts Centre car p

ark near the Worcester Boulevard-Rolleston Avenue corner. We did not want to walk under the Convention Center overbridge on Kilmore Street, but were uncomfortable about going over bridges. We watched people crossing the Colombo St bridge and decided that we would risk it but shoul

d walk quickly over it. As we moved in this direction see could see people up high in the Forsyth Barr building and also that

the top of the cathedral spire had fallen down. Once over the bridge we moved into Victoria Square picking our way carefully around the liquefaction and commenting on our inappropriate shoes. We found some more colleagues and sat down on the grass to consider what to do next. It was cool and grey, the air felt damp, and people wandered past and stood around in small groups.

Now

Awoken by something, I got up to check GeoNet for the size of the quake at 10:42 pm - it was 4.6 and centered closer to our place than most. The ability to see where a quake was on Google maps is a useful feature that encourages many further minutes of earthquake-obsession.

NB This spellcheck does not know how to spell Google, which is intriguing when Google owns Blogger!