NZ Earthquake!!
 

I just had the scariest moment of my life at 4.30am this morning. There was a shallow, violent earthquake that hit my city and absolutely threw all out stuff in the house everywhere. It was so frightening, it felt as though the house was going to collapse on us I was screaming and and I couldn't get to the doorway because glass was everywhere! I'll put some photos up soon but here is a site with pictures of the damage. Christchurch earthquake's destruction - National - NZ Herald Pictures

State of emergency has been declared, we could be out of water very quickly. It was 7.1 in magnitude. Has anyone else experienced such a huge earthquake?

I heard about it, from whatshername that lives in NZ. We were hoping you didn't die. Now we are relieved. Are you ok?

I really want to ask you what it was like, because I've never been in one... but it would be insensitive. My perception of earthquakes is like... skewed... to say the least. If I actually explained it, it would insult a lot of people.

That looks terrible.
Can't imagine what you went through with all that glass & debris flying around.

I'm glad you're still here to tell us about it.
Any idea how many people have been hurt?

Hardly any major injuries I think worst so far a guy had a chimney fall on him. My chimney fell through into my fireplace.

Damn, this is crazy, so many in such little time, what the **** is going on. Hope you guys are ok and wish you the best.

And Freebase, I think I know what you mean. The only earthquake I felt that was semi strong was back in easter, we've been getting small ones like everyother week, they're no big deal because there of small magnitude, but 7.1... damn!!!

Just looked at the pictures, that's terrible, and for it too happen that early in the day, damn, it really is a scary thing.

I'm used to hurricanes and flooding. Earthquakes... no.

I was out at about 6.30am, had to take my partner to work (I know right), saw some written off cars where the brick walls of buildings had fallen on cars. Power was out to the whole town.

Heading back home a brick fell from the roof of a neighbours roof and dented my bonnet.

So hows your house? Hope there isn't too much damage, I know you said the chimney fell but is everything else good?

Bloody good for an old 1900's villa haha, I was most concerned about my plasma, but she was alright as well.

Glad to hear that you're okay! I'm more familiar with tornadoes, having experienced a couple in my lifetime. Also with hurricanes, having experienced one in Nova Scotia a few years ago. But I've never experienced an earthquake. We had a little tremor here a couple of months ago but that's all. It must be really scary, and I know they are very damaging.

Christchurch earthquake photos


The shed housing my cars is annihilated and my house looks like it's been ransacked

Glad you're OK Vanilla!


You too Merkaba.

Hope those cars are OK mate.

Going off the damage in the photos and the fact you just got hit by a 7.1 earthquake, I'm amazed there's been no loss of life.

The cars are buried by tonnes of brick and masonry

Well that's fucked. Glad everyone's ok though...I heard about it on the news and didn't think we actually have some people here who went through it.

That's messed up dude, we had a 7.4 a few months ago, there was little to no visible damage. I suppose NZ isn't as prepared for such a disaster. Hope everyone is OK.

It's mostly confined to building 70 years+. The newer ones have no damage.

I keep reading this thread as "NZ cheesecake"

Freebase: the earthquake felt as though the house was being ripped off the ground, like someone was actually shaking it. I was asleep and then it happened so imagine how out of it I was? Everything I owned was falling onto the floor and a mirror leaning against a wall smashed against my heater with glass everywhere, so I couldn't get to the door. On top of that it was dark, incredibly loud and I was on the bed which was moving around! I am still having flashbacks of it and am quite anxious, there has been aftershock after aftershock. There is apparently supposed to be a big aftershock coming in the next 24 hours of magnitude 6.1. I am not looking forward to it.

I am so relieved no one has died, I am uploading photos to post right now so you can see how astonishing it is to be there. My flatmate and I were standing right beside a collapsed building front and an aftershock hit, pretty freaky haha!

Merkaba and Cheese I'm so glad to hear you are okay, sorry about your shed Cheese. Us 3 all live in Christchurch you see, New Zealand is such a small place so it's bound to happen.

Thank you everyone for your concern, I'm still in a state of oblivion right now.

I heard about it yesterday, when my mum was calling every single person we know in Christchurch to see if they were all fine. Being in Auckland I didnt feel anything, but hope your ok Vanilla :(

That sounds horrid.
Hope you don't get PTSD from that. :(

I guess i have nothing to add here that hasn't already been said but it's so glad to learn that all our NZ'ers are fine and that no one has been killed as a cause of this.

We don't really have this to worry about here. Infact the only earthquake i have ever felt was in the last couple of years and it was a very, very, weak tremor. Nothing more. At the time the foundations of my house had been shaking mildly due to a dodgy water main under the house that would shake whenever a heavy vehicle such as a bus or a truck would pass over it and so i was used to this. When we had the tremor, i realised it was much more violent than usual but actually assumed this was all that happened until i couldn't sleep and put the news on. That was seriously how irrelevant the whole thing was and so i can't even comprehend something like this, personally.

Vanilla's account of it is really scary. It's actually a little heartbreaking to read.

Just wanted to say hope everything's restoring back to normalcy. I see how people behave crazed over a 5.1 or so earthquake here, so a 7.4 would be catastrophic to say the least. So, I hope everyone's fine where you are.

Sorry if I missed this science class but they can predict them???

I know one lot who definitely don't want that prediction to come true. They've already got one of their biggest rapings coming, and they're not in the mood for another, it's the insurance companies!

When I saw this on the news, I was also hoping you were all okay! I was shocked to see how many earthquakes New Zealand gets...thousands per year, apparently, but "only" 200 or so of them strong enough to be felt. That's a lot of earthquakes!

One time in high school, I heard rumbling and vibrations and thought it was an earthquake and was all set to jump out the 2nd story window. Turned out to be just a janitor pushing a cart on the roof. I remember adrenalin shooting through me from just that false alarm, so your very real experiences must have been very scary.

Oh lawd, they gonna be so raped.
:D

I can't say that I'd ever need earthquake insurance, but I sure could use some Hurricane insurance.
Anyway, it's definitely good to hear none of our NZ folks were injured during the making of this tectonic fiasco. To be honest, I didn't even know they had earthquakes there.

/ignorance

Since NZ has no real poisonous animals, isn't near tropical equators causing monsoons and twisters, and doesn't house any mafia or major heroine distributors, God thought it was only fair to sit us right on some tectonic plate fault lines.

We got scousers. :(

Manchester drew the short straw. ;)

And he gave us pinapple lumps :laughing:

I am feeling majorly anxious right now, we had an aftershock at 8am of 5.1 but it was 6km deep and 5km away. We've been told the aftershocks could go for months and I think University is shut for a bit because of the major damage. Can I come stay with one of you guys?! :D

I'm officially done with it now.........my nerves are shot, I'm smoking like a mofo and I haven't slept since Saturday:(

That was a shit aftershock, I was just trying to tie my shoelaces lol and it left me looking like a pretzel.

Cheese Im thinking we haven't had many today, worst of it is over?

I wish that much was true. Thing with large quakes like this is they leave you with a false sense of security then early one morning, maybe in a few days, a week or even a month.....Bang!!! It begins again.

That aftershock was horrible! I had to sleep in my flatmates bed that night when it happened and completely smothered her in scarednesss. Tonight I went to the only cinema open and there was a big aftershock it was freaky watching the building shake! I'm going to Auckland on Saturday to get away from this ****. Glastonelle, you wanna catch up?

First thing I thought of when I heard about the quake was how we have quite a few NZ members here. Glad to hear everything is ok.

I've never been in an earthquake...or any natural disaster for that matter, but I do have an interesting story. The big tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004 would have hit the country I was in, but luckily Singapore is so tiny that all the surrounding countries protect from basically everything (yep...no earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, or any other natural disaster...pretty relaxing). Anyway, it was my freshman year of college and I was just there for Christmas break. All my dorm buddies ended up watching some news about what Singapore would have looked like if it had actually been hit (total decimation) and they confused that for what actually happened. My whole floor thought I had died.

I'm glad to hear that our NZ members were not injured in the Earthquake. Hopefully the aftershocks are small and sparse, but I must also admit my ignorance to the seismic activity in that region. It also reminds me of "The Big One" that's going to hit Vancouver at some point, much to my chagrin.

I heard this on the news the morning after it happened, and thought of you Vanilla, so glad you're okay! Stay safe.

When it happened I immediately tried calling the friends I have in Christchurch who I used to stay with but couldn't get through! :( The phone lines must've been down. I've since been able to contact them via Facebook but they have no water or electricity still! The whole things terrible. Stay safe all you Christchurchers!

It's been such a horrible week in Australia too, my state has been suffering from bad floods and hundreds of people have lost their houses... what is going on?!

To be honest with you I hadn't heard about this until now. I have family that live near you, I should maybe drop someone a text or something.