We made it..
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| Lots of bags - it is only what you can carry so wheels a must - although this one lost both wheels in the rescue |
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| The view from the stairs to the other side of the building - they had lights!!! |
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The view back down the foyer from the 4th floor -
not sure where the debris was from but didn't appear to be the ceiling above |
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| Sardine effect on the lift door on our floor... |
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| Entering the access point to our office |
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| From the door.. the other two see it for the first time |
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| My desk, and haven at the time - amazing the laptop sailed through it all safely |
We managed to retrieve lots... but in the end we also had to leave heaps. I just couldn't find a few things on my list as they are buried in the mounds of paper, or in drawers I didn't get to... but as far as we can see, we can function with what we have for a while. Perhaps we can make another rescue attempt later if the building repairs are held up, but the tower is not in imminent danger of collapse and has passed engineers reports. I can't imagine how hard it must be to do this in your home.. it is truly hard to think clearly as everything is not where it should be - there is no order, just chaos and mess to find things. Never even saw my camera.... the trusty iPhone has been doing the job instead for the last month.
I didn't look up at the ceiling in the rush to grab things in our allotted 10 minutes but there was no glass through the papers. Some relief - there must have been power as the laptop was on! No lights though... not in our side of the building.
A friend found this article full of excellent information and answers on the earthquakes ...
Just click on any picture to see it larger...
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| The height is related to the number of people affected in the area - the colour shows how intense the shaking was.... I was in the orange zone near the CTV building. |
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| The vertical ground movement - I was in the zone Catholic Cathedral Grammar at work, and Shirley library zone is near our home. |
There is also a horizontal movement comparison in the article... It helps explain the violence, damage and liquefaction issue more clearly...
Well - feeling better now that is over... :)
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
