Have a look at the seismograph for today... we have had 30 aftershocks, the latest two quite large.
Nerves a bit frayed.
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The timestamp shown at the top right of the seismograph drum shown below is the time when this image was last refreshed. Each horizontal line (or trace) represents 30 minutes, each vertical line is spaced 1 minute apart; 24 hours of recording are displayed in total. The most recent signal is drawn at the bottom right hand corner of the drum. Then read the traces from right to left, bottom to top, to get from the most recent to the oldest signals. The trace will appear red if the signals are very large; this means they have been clipped to stop them overwriting too much of the surrounding image. So, yet again we were woken early with an adrenaline surge.... 4.35 am it struck on a frosty morning. Amazingly we were already awake - my partner had to start work at 6 am... so unlike many others, we heard it coming. After a fearful minute cowering beside the bed -not something I would have thought of but then I was just sitting there confused until he suggested I get off the bed... the door was banging and swinging and the door frame looked scary! Eventually, we made our way to find the kids, and huddle near the night store heater... wrapped in blankets, waiting for dawn. The day has been spent tidying up, managing without power and water until lunchtime (huge relief to get them both back so quickly), and watching the drama unfold on tv. Now we wait. There are extra police arriving. The army are helping. The central city is curfewed... we are currently fine, just edgy and expecting to be rocked gently on a regular basis. The slightest noise makes us jumpy! But torches are ready, water is boiled, blankets to hand... just need to put some in the car I guess - the roads may be impassable but the car is heatable and has a radio... Believe me... "did the earth move for you" has taken on a new meaning! Some great pics : http://www.crashbang.co.nz/quake/040910/index.html |
