Christchurch - State of Emergency Extended

I woke to a mild aftershock this morning... lost track of how many we have had - must be around 40 now, all ranging from 3-5.

Youc an monitor them at
http://geonet.org.nz/earthquake/drums/mqz-drum.html

The last 24 hours. Red is big - Each line is 30 mins. 

I think the articles online are saying it all -
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4098390/Cantabrians-rudely-shaken
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4098378/Disruption-follows-Canterbury-quake
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4098378/7-1-Canterbury-earthquake-State-of-emergency-extended

Historic Deans "Homebush"

Before..

Some good pictures here too.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4095395/7-1-earthquake-photos

The fate of many central city buildings

Thank you to the many wonderful people from around the world who have left comments on my last posts. All I can say is that we have been lucky... our lives are continuing with a semblance of normality, but we do know that many people have lost their homes. Families are in rescue venues - others are sleeping in the living rooms with scared children.
We are all twitchy - every shake puts you on alert - is it getting bigger!
We have had a lot of people being admitted for heart attacks, and a record number of births for the weekend!

Typical mud pile - outside a house not far from us

Bit of a lean....many houses have sunk

One of our All Blacks, Brad Thorn, was quoted after travelling out of Christchurch as saying that he found the turbulence on the plane disturbing - and likened trying to get to his children during the quake as "moving on the deck of a ship in rough seas". I think we would all agree with that.

Apparently, the slip happened in a previously undetected fault...  as did Haiti... both were 7.1, both shallow, and both involved slips that resulted in major sideways movement ... equivalent to the energy from 67 nuclear bombs.. Haiti hit at 4.53 ppm, ours at 4.36 am. We have building codes. They had none... so they lost 230,000 people. It could have been so much worse here.

Many people still have no power - but overall it is being returned.
Many still have no water.... our friends came over for a shower last night - but just heard it is back for them.

We are all having to boil our water for three minutes.. apparently a high risk of sewage contamination in the water supplies - even though it looks and smells fine, we are being careful, even for the animals - which is probably crazy when I think about what they usually eat and drink...

It is obvious that many pets have been very distressed by the shakes - and a lot of them are still missing. I can usually tell when an aftershock is coming as the dogs react, but I can't remember if they behaved differently for the first shake - was awake but staying warm in bed. Our pets are all fine- Saffy gets very anxious - my son says he had a wee struggle during the main shake to get under his bed as she was frantically trying to get under there too. The local RSPCA are on the radio now letting people know to use the online lost pet sections and that their staff are flat out helping the stray animals.

Anyway - will do more pics soon.. just enjoying a day off work - yes we are closed.

Favourite quote from the friend who came for a shower.

My goodness, I've just checked the workshop again and it looks like it's been hit by an earthquake. Hold on, it always looks like that..

and for some Canty humour - go see a local restaurant's response to the destruction (pictured below)
http://alvarado.co.nz/

ALVARADOS IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT (and has been totally remodelled).

Was a must for authentic traditional style Mexican Cuisine.

New menu out now! (if you find it blowing around on the street, could you return it please?)

Was fully licensed and BYO (wine only).

Was open Tuesday - Saturday from 5.30pm

 Alfresco dining apparently isn't an option. Something to do with the lack of access, water, power and hygiene.

AlvaRados...