Christchurch Earthquake Stories

Blair - posted on 03/08/2011

wow you are so much stronger then i am i ran at the first chance i got and there you are with twins and a broken foot and you are still refusing to get a cast i dont think i would ever be as strong as you i cant wait to return to chch and try and rebuild my life again we love christchurch even though we have only lived in chch for 3yrs it is still our home my girls love it.i think its nice being able to talk about what we have gone thru my daughter has finally finished writing a story of her experience and it was so heart wrenching that i cried and cried it is only now that i have realised that this is something that will have a lasting affect on not only us adults but our children no matter how young or old they are.

I hope you and your family will get thru this without to much heartache and your foot gets better. things can hopfully only get bettter then

Bunni - posted on 03/07/2011

thanks, ill add you to my facebook friends, its always nice to have new friends who have gone through a similar experience.
currently im getting through eachday by telling my boys "its just the floor dancing" sadly i cant take my kids out anywhere at the moment, because they burst into tears and start screaming "ohhh no" at all the buildings and torn up roads. whenever theres an aftershock i grab the boys and run to the hallway, its the only place that nothing can fall on us in our house (i refused to get my foot put in plaster because that would make it difficult to run, so i am ignoring the pain and 'sucking it up') i have the car packed with blankets, a fully stocked nappy bag, water, extra food and nappies, and a torch just in case we have to drop everything and run. i also have the boys buggy set up out the front of my house with a first aid kit, water, nappy bag and change of clothes and blankets just in case the car got stuck and the roads filled with liquifaction. i now sleep on the floor of my boys room at nights, and its a rare occasion to get longer than 2 hours sleep at once. if i could get things back to the way they were 3 weeks ago.. id be stoaked!
its heartbreaking to see our city like this everyday, the storys and pictures on the news are nothing compared to what chch really is like at the moment. prepare yourself and your kids for things to all look alot different when you do get to come home.

Blair - posted on 03/07/2011

Wow bunni, that is a very scary and emotional story it made me cry we live on Wainoni road it was hard for us there and we had family in the north island that really wanted us to get out of chch as we have no other family in chch so we left on the thursday after the earthquake my kids are still scared and frightened and fall asleep with me everynight once they are asleep i jump out into my own bed but they share a bed at the moment we are waiting for EQC to pop around and check our house out before we return but to see it everyday that would break me i had to spend 24hrs alone with my girls while my partner did everything possible to come help us i dont know how you are able to do it and i have the biggest respect for any mother who can do it. everynight before i go to bed i check that i have a torch near by my cellphone is fully charged and that a table isnt to far away i walk around the dinner table pulling all the chairs out from the table and putting them under the window so that if one hits us were we are then we have a clean break to get under the table we are hoping to return to chch this week or next week hopefully the kids will be ok going back well my fingers are crossed would love to hear more of your story if you are wanting someone to talk to you can email me on renwickhaulage@xtra.co.nz or on facebook user name blair roddick

Bunni - posted on 03/06/2011

i live 1 block from the CBD, on the 22nd i was ment to be taking my 22month old twins into cashel mall to meet a friend at 12.30, but the boys were throwing tantrums, and as soon as id get one of them ready to go, the other one had undressed himself and was laughing at me.. finally i had them ready.. as i bent over to pick them both up the house started to shake, the sofa next to me tipped over and pinned my foot under it, then i was thrown into the table (still holding the boys, they were completely fine) i ended up landing with my body covering them while everything fell down around us.. i ended up with a broken foot (which i didnt realise till the adrenalin wore off 4 days later) my son's dad was checking the mail when it happened, and the door slamed and locked him out, so he couldnt get to us to help.. luckily we were all ok. then we heard the screams and calls for help comming from town, our street was filled with a flood of people looking like they were from a war movie, while i stayed with the kids and neighbors (and stray dog and 3 kittens the earthquake shook to my house) my kids dad then grabbed his high-vis vest and hardhat and steel caped shoes and ran into town, he managed to pull people out of the rubble, and to sit with people for their final moments, he climbed through smiths city carparking building to search. he risked his life to help anyone in need.. he did everything he could that day.. he is truley a hero to me and our sons.
we are still living in our house now, we see the cracks everyday, the holes in the street that a car could fall in, we feel every aftershock, we boil our water and dig a hole in the back yard to do our business. life will never be the same here in chch, but this will always be home