Earthquake Experience by
Sol. Green
It took a lot of effort just to get to the hallway as our
house had instantly become an army training assault course. Looking out into
the kitchen, all I could see were jars, boxes, fresh food and other dry
ingredients crashing down like bombs or missiles, exploding on impact. The
shaking continued as I sometimes shuffled, sometimes stumbled through the
layers of broken glass and damaged goods. Through the groaning and roaring of
the earth splitting beneath me, I could hear static on the radio, which was
then followed by a Civil Defence Message.
As I finally reached the back door, I heard someone knocking.
Checking through the cracked window I saw my neighbour Blair. “Sol, can you get
out?” he asked. I tried to open the door but all the fallen pots and pans were
obstructing it. Deciding to try and exit out the front instead, Blair guided me
to a non-hazardous area of his front lawn and left me with a portable radio
while he went out and offered help to others. With the gentle warmth of the sun
softly massaging my back, I spent a few minutes trying to regain my focus and
attempted to squeeze my sockless feet into the only shoes I had been able to
grab on my hasty exit. They were an old pair of shoes from our ‘dress up’
costume box. They were also a size too small!
I tried to contact my mum, wishing I had said more to her
when she had left than just a simple “bye”. Unfortunately, like the rest of
Christchurch, the phone lines were too busy. Surprisingly I got a call from my granddad
in England! He explained to me that my mum had been able to contact him but
wasn’t able to make any local calls due to the network being overloaded. “Are
you hurt”, he asked. I could hear anxiety in his voice. He reassured me that
she was okay but stuck in grid-lock traffic. “Be brave, Mum’s okay and said she
will be with you as soon as she can”. I can’t really remember much of what I
said, but I do recall that my Granddad told me he loved me. “I love you too”, I
replied.
Much to my relief, my elderly friend Ann, appeared. She had
heard I was on my own and although afflicted by arthritis, she had braved the
carnage on the roads to come and get me. Together we waded through knee high
liquefaction. Negotiating the broken water pipes, sewage and flooded roads we
cautiously clung to each other as the aftershocks continued. All around us were
stunned people resembling zombies, and an unrecognisable landscape – Wainoni
was now more like a war zone.
Nearing the edge of the Avon River we spotted a small, once
white puppy struggling at the unwelcoming and dramatically different rivers
edge. It was lost and scared and resembled a drowned rat; its matted, dirty
curls clinging to its tiny shivering body with the same commitment as it was
now clinging to me. Soaked, shell-shocked and sore, the three of us made it
back to Ann’s broken, but inviting home, where I felt safe and sheltered. About
4 hours passed until I saw my mum again as it took her all that time to get
across the broken roads and through the endless traffic.
Although the liquefaction didn’t affect our property, the
earthquake severely damaged our house’s foundations. Due to this, our front
room was ripped off from the main building, almost like an island separated
from a continent. We had no power for a week, no water for 5 weeks and no
sewerage for 6 months! Eventually we were Red-Zoned. It was stressful,
overwhelming and very sad, but we were grateful that we were both okay and so
were our beloved pets.
On June 28 2013 we moved to a safer and dryer house in New
Brighton. Our previous landlord had battled EQC and won, so he was able to buy
a new place where we could move to. Our pets were allowed to come too! My mum
and I had been very worried about being homeless so it was such a relief for
us. It turned out that many of my school friends live in New Brighton as well!
“Keep calm
and carry on”
-
Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom.
