EARTHQUAKE

No really, I'm not kidding.

Our sleepy city was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the richter scale. This was approximately at 4.40am.

The earthquake happened 10km deep, and only 40km from Christchurch.

We were one of the luckier suburbs - power got cut off, but restored, and our water isn't contaminated!!

Central city has suffered quite a bit. Some fissures, cracks in the ground, collapsed walls.

I don't think there are any casualties so far, but we have been advised to prepare for another large aftershock.

Now for my personal account:

I woke up in the middle of the night due to the bed and room rumbling HEAVILY... and thought it was part of my dream, and that the wind was blowing really hard. Lame eh? So promptly tried to get back to sleep. I had a niggling feeling that there was something wrong, but couldn't be bothered to find out what, despite the numerous heavy-ish aftershocks I was experiencing.

This was until Dad came to check up on me and told me an earthquake had happened.

:O

Now, I grew up in NZ. We've had fire drills and stuff but there has always been an emphasis on earthquake drills - what to do, where to stand, how to act, how to prepare.

I'm ashamed to say I did none of it.

= =

What I really did was to flip the covers over my head, and sleep again. Of course, this was impossible due to the many aftershocks.

After about 10+++ aftershocks I decided to get up and head to the toilet. And check out how family were doing. We had no electricity now, but still we had running water - thank goodness.

After hanging with the family and getting and sending "omigoshearthquakeareyouok???" texts to friends for a bit I went back out to head to sleep. This was difficult due to aftershocks but I fell asleep anyway.

= = feeling ashamed with my earthquake training. My friends had either run outside or hid under tables (proper earthquake training!), and here I was, texting leisurely and trying to get back to sleep. LAME

Apparently there will be a strong aftershock, so we're packing some things. Dad, being the very organised one has bottled heaps of water (about 20 2L bottles lined up).

I'll be prepared for this one. Aftershocks keep hitting as I type.

There are however some pros due to this earthquake:

- ESSAY EXTENSIONS FOR A WEEEK :D
- University is closed for an extra week for health and safety reasons!!
- MORE HOLIDAYYYY

I am really glad no one was hurt though.

I better start packing.