It feels like being a hamster in a ball in a hungry dogs mouth. (2 days of constant fight/flight reaction and I still sort of have sense of humour )

Given what I experienced I can't believe the region got off with as little damage as it did. No structural damage at mine, couple of houses in the village lost chimney stacks but that is about limit of visible damage here.

From what I have seen on Christchurch they were not as lucky. Not been into town yet as work cancelled for today. At least no recorded deaths.

Point A on the map is groud zero for the 7.1 that hit, Point B is where I live.

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps? ... ,1.20575&t=h&z=10

I have seen pics of some areas in the plains where across the fault line there has been 3m lateral movement, to give some scale on the forces involved.

Ground has rumbled like a drum since with constant flow of scale 3-5 quakes, hope we are past the worst. If experts are right we might get a 6 soon, hope they are not right :o

Nasty, the worst we've ever had up here is a magnitude 2, and I slept through it, can't imagine what a proper fault is like.

Good you got off lightly so far.

Off to see the split in the land. will post some pics when back

Take care man, our thoughts are with you.

AAnt

We had a series of small earthquakes a few years ago the biggest of which were two 4.5 ones about 10 seconds apart. Although 4.5 isn't that big, it scared the hell out of me as I was at work on the 17th floor of a rickety, earthquake-proofing-not-even-considered building.

Hard to get to fault now. This shows the extent as to what hit us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npqx3WmNkv4

Lucky that NZ has sparse population in this area, well most of South Island tbh

Will see what Christchurch is like tomorrow as have to go back to work

Hold F11 for a couple of secs. Same effect

That applies

Quote from Woz :

Hard to get to fault now. This shows the extent as to what hit us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npqx3WmNkv4

Lucky that NZ has sparse population in this area, well most of South Island tbh

Will see what Christchurch is like tomorrow as have to go back to work

Dam that's insane that dike looks to have moved like 4+ meters.

Quote from Chrisuu01 :

Dam that's insane that dike looks to have moved like 4+ meters.

Yep, areas of land have moved up to 4M in virt and lateral directions. BTW no dike, only flat land on the plains although now there is a ridge that was never there beore.

We were rocked by a series of 5.2 - 5.4 quakes over night. Slept in the car parked in as safe a spot as could find. Mentally cooked now and low on sleep. Not going to work today so still have not seen the damage in Christchurch first hand yet.

Managed to find CCTV footage of when the big one hit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... p;feature=player_embedded

North Island just taken a 5+ wallop now. Oh F**K!

Hang in there guys.

You know, this 2012 thing is becoming more and more realistic... This year has seen some huge catastrophes and whatnot.

(No I do not believe that the world will end in 2012 before someone asks. Just the timing of all these earthquakes, volcanoes etc...)

Huge natrual disasters always happen all the time, just often the media outlets don't feel it'll make a good story, or the disaster occurs in a far flung region where news gets around slowly.

For example did you hear about the magnitude 7 Earthquakes that hit Vanatu and Eccuador in the first week of August? No neither did I.

Stay safe ladies and gents.

Quote from DieKolkrabe :

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Quote from Crashgate3 :

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While the comic strips are true , once you are in this situation you realise what a great source of info the net is and also that it lets you vent off your mental state to stop going mad.

Just flicking around my normal sites I monitor trying to get normality. Would love to chill and play some games but cant relax for that and need all my senses working. We are still at 60+ after shocks a day that are 3+.

Was meant to be in work today but could not face it after last night. So spend a lot of time watching the drums

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/drums/

Sorry if comes across as anything else. Hope you are never in this situation, but if you are you might understand

Quote from 5haz :

Huge natrual disasters always happen all the time, just often the media outlets don't feel it'll make a good story, or the disaster occurs in a far flung region where news gets around slowly.

For example did you hear about the magnitude 7 Earthquakes that hit Vanatu and Eccuador in the first week of August? No neither did I.

Stay safe ladies and gents.

We heard about that down here but as we are on the ring off fire you take interest in it But yep, I understand most news has moved onto the Aussie floods now. They look bad there as well.

I like how we have just had ads going on about the flooding in New Orleans and nothing has really been mentioned about Pakistan being under water.

No we have 9/11 popping up again. God i hate america and the media.

Never been in an earthquake myself. Haven't watched the news lately either because there is only so much of one thing you can watch. Im not sure what dedicating half of the news to one event achieves.

Quote from Woz :

I understand most news has moved onto the Aussie floods now. They look bad there as well.

It's actually pretty exciting. There has of course been some damage, but people are more hopeful than panicked or depressed about these floods for the most part- all that rain has broken a pretty bad drought, it's given the state a much needed drink. Flood, drought, flood, drought, etc... that's Australia for you.

Woz - Do you need a Speights airdrop ?

Pretty good shake, apparently we didn't even know that faultline was there ( we have LOTS ! )
The first time that faults moved in 16,000 yrs.

Look on the bright side, Auckland's built on 7 Volcanos as well as fault lines !

It seems most of the damage is in older mainly brick buildings and we were fantasticly lucky that it happened at 4.30 in the morning.

Unfortunately your probably in for more shaking as the fault settles down but it's always worth remembering here that that was plate movement rather than just faultline.

Possibly sleeping with your skidlid on may be safer

Quote from Racer X NZ :

Woz - Do you need a Speights airdrop ?

Pretty good shake, apparently we didn't even know that faultline was there ( we have LOTS ! )
The first time that faults moved in 16,000 yrs.

Look on the bright side, Auckland's built on 7 Volcanos as well as fault lines !

It seems most of the damage is in older mainly brick buildings and we were fantasticly lucky that it happened at 4.30 in the morning.

Unfortunately your probably in for more shaking as the fault settles down but it's always worth remembering here that that was plate movement rather than just faultline.

Possibly sleeping with your skidlid on may be safer

Have grog and also Absinthe, 140% proof wormwood spirit, so that takes the edge off but also makes you a little speedy. lol

Where about are you? North/South?

Yep, new unknown fault line. I can't imagine what would have happened if CHCH was busy or the fault had opened over a town

We actually sat in house with cycle helmets on for the first day after we left the car once the sun was up. We are well drilled in void spaces and how to react

As for Auckland, yep the liquifaction that has hit CHCH would be nothing compared to the lava flows they could sufer. 100000 homes in CHCH area are damaged!

:hide: LOL

Whanganui so all we have to deal with is flooding & Laws !

You sound well stocked with essential supplies, I tend to drink mine so I should put a whiskey in the back garden just in case.

That sand action is frightening, instant quicksand. I expect it doesn't do a lot for the level of the house so it will be interesting to see what happens with rebuilding.

At least EQC covers some of the repair bill, I think 2b nz ( $2.50 US ) may be a bit low looking at the damage.

Your place ok ?

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ ... 1.137231,1.892395&z=9

Quote from Racer X NZ :

:hide: LOL

Whanganui so all we have to deal with is flooding & Laws !

lol, although Laws is meant to stand down soon?

Quote from Racer X NZ :

You sound well stocked with essential supplies, I tend to drink mine so I should put a whiskey in the back garden just in case.

Just have a beer fridge in garage as also acts as protective shell

Quote from Racer X NZ :

That sand action is frightening, instant quicksand. I expect it doesn't do a lot for the level of the house so it will be interesting to see what happens with rebuilding.

At least EQC covers some of the repair bill, I think 2b nz ( $2.50 US ) may be a bit low looking at the damage.

Your place ok ?

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ ... 1.137231,1.892395&z=9

Yep, place stood up well, so far Can't see any cracks and water supply still functioning well.

Yes, that sand is mad. Seen reports of people running out their house and then being neck deep in quicksand.
People came out of there houses and fell neck deep into quicksand

That we'd be so lucky, he's still going for council tho so we still may have him around.

Just have a beer fridge in garage as also acts as protective shell

What a great idea for an EQ shelter !

I've now got one in the garage, just check that the alcohol and I both fit inside then roll on the next disaster.

It will probably work in a Tsunami too.

I do recomend a larger standup model so that means a new beer fridge, now, a good accountant and that's a business expense under OSH regulations for workplace safety.

Another great NZ invention.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

That we'd be so lucky, he's still going for council tho so we still may have him around.

Just have a beer fridge in garage as also acts as protective shell

What a great idea for an EQ shelter !

I've now got one in the garage, just check that the alcohol and I both fit inside then roll on the next disaster.

It will probably work in a Tsunami too.

I do recomend a larger standup model so that means a new beer fridge, now, a good accountant and that's a business expense under OSH regulations for workplace safety.

Another great NZ invention.

If you use a chest freezer it works as a boat, you just have to drink the contents then to adjust how it sits in the water.

I am feeling better as less quakes today

Nah, I recon an upright 2 door model. The tsunamii will tip it over if you put the right sort of keel on it and two doors will keep the second part cool while you drink the first.

Put a mast on it and we should be able to start a racing series.
Give us something to do while the water goes down.

Handicaping is by the 1/2 dozen

My current tsunami prepairedness kit is 2 boogie boards on the verandah, it pays to be prepaired :skateboar
and if you get a good wave .........