Kiwi's please check in!

[Special Ed]

More disaster down under. I know we have some Kiwi brothers, and I hope they have survived today's quake. I gather that the north island is roughly the same size as our state of Oregon, so I'm pretty sure that this quake has affected the whole island.
Special Ed

[subike]

Hey guys, thanks for your thoughts. I am in Christchurch, the place where the earthquake happened. I work in a white wear assembly plant, when the quake hit i was surrounded by steel parts sliding off of shelves, ovens and cookers falling over .. the amount of debris created in a few seconds was amazing. Thankfully our building stayed upright, our 200 man team all got out uninjured. Hopefully I will have work to return too, I was very lucky.
Sadly the rest of my home town has not been so lucky. If you have been watching any reports, over 80% of the buildings in our central business district have been damaged, we have lost a known 75 of our fellow citizens her in Christchurch, with reported 300 missing. That may seem as small number to some of you guys, but please remember we are a nation of only 4.2 million.
Some of you guys have been in war zones during your military service, that's what our town center looks like. 50 city blocks trashed, our infrastructure has been destroyed, the city of 380,000 people has no water or sewerage systems working, although electricity has been restored to 90% of the city.
Christchurch sits on the top of an ancient river bed, so it is basically a huge shingle and sand bank, this has meant liquidation of the ground, everywhere in the city water and silt has been spewing out of the ground, which has caused subsidence of roads, the ground under buildings, bridges have collapsed the silt creating mounds as high as three feet in the middle of roads, gardens and even inside some buildings. Cars even being swallowed up in the silt .
The city sits beside an extinct volcano, which was where the earthquake e pi enter was, only 10 miles from the center of the city. Many homes are built on the side of this volcano, but are now severely damages because of ground subsidence. Whole hillsides have broken loose sliding down the hill sides burying houses, streets, with huge rocks rolling down the hills literally taking out houses in their path.
But hey guys, we are survivors here, and the community , although badly shaken, is getting its feet dirty. We are in rescue mode at the moment. Our emergency services are concentrated upon searching for survivors under the rubble. Once we feel that we have done the impossible then we will look at rebuilding Christchurch, the garden city of New Zealand.
The whole of New Zealand has been mobilized to deal with this our biggest disaster ever. Our Prime minister had declared a national state of emergency. Keep us in your prayers over the next few months as we shake off the dust of this event, rebuild out city, and again take our place in the worlds economy.
Christchurch is one of the centers that are holding the World Rugby Cup this year, as one eyed as we are , like you guys with grid iron, we will hold that event.
As for me, today I stayed at home, work is on hold till I get a clearance from my employer to return. I spent the day in my garage, pulled the carbs off my 11 to replace all the screws with S/S cap screws. pulled the wiring loom off cleaned all the connections and replaced it. I cant ride her because of the damaged roads, but she was good stress relief.
If you want to help us, buy New Zealand produce, that will help our economy and get us all back to work, which is what we need.

[b.walker5]

Good to hear you're okay Sub. Have finally located all my family in the city and all are okay. Brother works in the Telstra building right in the guts of town and was right outside Cashel Mall when it hit. His stories are disturbing. Still have some of my wifes family yet to check in, but they're out Belfast way so hopefully should be fine.

[petejw]

glad u boys and ur families are safe.

[DGXSER]

Thannks for the first hand info Sub. Brian, good to hear your family has made it through, hope all of your wife's has also.

[Special Ed]

Glad you survived!

I'm glad all are well, and I'm happy that you got a chance to work on your bike
subike, but I'm kinda surprised that you and all other uninjured weren't out there helping dig out your fellow citizens! I'm trying not to be judgmental here, but I am puzzled...
Special Ed

[Crusty Snippets]

Kiwis

This is NZs 2 millionth best rugby player checking in.
Glad to here you are okay, but sad for many others.
I work in Victoria BC Canada which will probably be hit someday.
Never made it to the South Island, spent all my time in the pubs and at the beaches on the North Island.

Unkle Crusty

[b.walker5]

I'm glad all are well, and I'm happy that you got a chance to work on your bike
subike, but I'm kinda surprised that you and all other uninjured weren't out there helping dig out your fellow citizens! I'm trying not to be judgmental here, but I am puzzled...
Special Ed

To be honest Ed I was a little suprised by that one myself, but then i suppose everbody deals with stress in different ways.

It's 500ks away from me but I'm going up to help this weekend. My brothers house is a write off and he needs a hand to move.

and Crusty... whadda ya mean ya never made it to the South Island??? Thats sacrilidge!! You havent seen the best of the country if you've only seen the North Island. The beer taste's better down here.

[petejw]

from what ive heard and understand, i didnt think any1 other than
trained personel were allowed to assist in case of dangering themselves
which could then put other personel at possible risk, even tho people
were assisting after the initial quake.

[b.walker5]

Yeah thats right Pete, in the case of digging people out of collapsed buildings etc, but there are no restrictions on helping your neighbours shore up their home, or digging the dunny out from under the massive amounts of liquifaction, or getting water or food to the eldelry that may be house bound etc.

[subike]

I found that working on my bike was stress relief, I was inside a building with steel flying around, stove, barbques and pallet racks falling over, If you have ever been inside a building when the concrete walls are moving the roof is flapping the ground is rocking you cannot stand up, you dare no move out of the little safe zone you have found, then please dont judge my stress relief.
Yup you could suggest I should have been , an unskilled recovery worker, scouring in the rubble of a multi floored building that is now ony 6ft high..................I prefer to leave that to men much younger than my 54 years, much more skilled than me, far fitter, and with equipment to do the job.
The best thing that 95% of Christchurch citizens could do is stay home out of the way of the emergancy service who have the skills.
If you have followed any of the news regaurding this quake, you will have heard that a team of 90 US urban rescue workers with 60 tons of equipment can here from LA. We thank you guys for having these specialized men who have forgotton far more than I could ever hope to learn about earthquake damage rescue.
Teams have come from England, Japan,The Philipieans, Australia to name a few.
Interpol is here to help identify victums, I dont think I would like to help pull out a victim that was under a 6 tonne concrete piller when it hit the ground, you pour them into a body bag!
As for helping neighbours, I foutunalty live in the area that suffered no damage , no liqufication, no water loss or power outage. To go to the area worst effected would just cause conjestion on roads already conjested with emergancy vehicles and people trying to get home.
I will work on my bike for stress relief, at least it is not a judge.

[Crusty Snippets]

Help

[QUOTE=subike;313766]I found that working on my bike was stress relief, Yup you could suggest I should have been , an unskilled recovery worker, scouring in the rubble of a multi floored building that is now ony 6ft high..................I prefer to leave that to men much younger than my 54 years, much more skilled than me, far fitter, and with equipment to do the job.

I agree with your opinion and logic.
When we have problems on the docks or on the water from high winds and waves, we do not want help from anyone that is not experienced.
And often all we can do is watch.
100 k winds and higher forecast for today, just like Wellington.

Unkle Crusty

[cywelchjr]

Living (and having lived even closer in 89) to pretty major earthquake zones, and having gone through one myself (albeit at the edges) in 89, I can understand all of that. I was in Santa Rosa Ca in 89 when the big one hit SF, and not only did I have close friends down in SF that day, one of who was within less than 5 minutes of having been in the section of freeway that pancaked in Oakland when it happened, I can feel for subike and the need to decompress, AND knowing that there is little the untrained can actually do to help, especially if your from outside the heavily damaged area.

It was scary enough where we were hearing and seeing the walls of our condo move back and forth. I was home sick that day, and the kids were just home from school and I actually told my daughter to stop rocking the couch before I realized what was happening.

I watched on TV (as the SF stations slowly came back on the air) the award winning broadcast of one of the SF news crews who were trapped in their top floor studios with stuff hanging from the ceiling, no phones, not even really knowing if they were getting out, but rather than trying to find a way out, were doing the only thing they knew to do, reading the instructions of what to do in case of earthquake from the back of the phone book, and telling people to be calm. You could see they were scared, but they continued to do their jobs.

Even as far as we were from the serious damage zones (we actually did have some minor damage though), phone service was almost non-existent for a few days. I was part of an amateur BBS network called Fidonet, and phones were taking minutes to get dial tone. I tweaked my modem to wait long enough for dialtone and for connection and was actually able to get out and get messages out to family outside the area that we were ok, via email (before it was called email).

So, don't judge those who are not in a position to help with search and rescue and such until you have stood in their shoes.

[b.walker5]

No ones judging. As I said previously, everyone deals with stress in different ways, and I understand completely what Sub is saying, just didnt know he was in an unnaffected area. Not suggesting for a minute that inexperienced people should be digging in rubble around unstable buildings. I wouldnt do it, nor would I expect anyone else unqualified to do it, but I would help my neighbours if it was needed, obviously in this case it wasnt needed.

My youngest nephew was 20ft off the ground on a scissor lift getting a TV down from the top of the pallet racks in the Harvey Norman distribution centre (large appliance retailler here) when it struck. His response, once his legs stop wobbling, was to leave town and go on the booze for three days. No one's judging him either, thats just his way of dealing with the stress.

[Special Ed]

“I prefer to leave that to men much younger than my 54 years, much more skilled than me, far fitter, and with equipment to do the job.”

Thanks for the clarification, Sub. Being 65, 120 Lbs. dripping wet and somewhat disabled myself I fully understand letting younger and mobetta trained lads do the rubble digging.

“I was in Santa Rosa Ca in 89 when the big one hit SF...” Quote cywelchjr

I take it you are referring to the Loma Prieta quake of '89. I experienced this quake as I was living in Santa Cruz at the time This was much closer to the epicenter than San Francisco, and folks down here tend to take um-bridge at having it referred to as the “San Francisco Quake.” Some wag who had had his house knocked off it's foundation near the epicenter posted a hand made sign next to the fissure that said “It's our fault.” But I digress.

The Loma Prieta quake was a love tap compared to what our brothers and sisters in Christchurch have been through. Santa Cruz had only one fatality: a young lady was buried under a pile of bricks in down town Santa Cruz. I was remembering the scene of every able bodied man and woman pitching in to dig through the rubble to try and dig her out. I must say the emergency response in this event was sorely lacking, and I am happy to hear that my fellow citizens are able to help in your hour of need. I hope I never have to live through what you are experiencing now.
Special Ed