7.1 earth quake at dutch corner in Christchurch

                                            Liquefaction , which is the transition of the soil from a solid state to a liquefied state because the shaking causes increased water pressure.

A loud Roarrrrrrrrrr, rumble, zoooaaaa, roarrrrrrrr at 4.35 in the morning."oh my god look at that wall" My husband was sitting straight in bed. Me being night blind didn't see a thing but something shaked the bed wildly.
Than he jumped out of bed. Aarr just in front of his nose the shelves tumbled down. Boing boing with a thump the wooden shelves and many books fell on the floor. Hubby jumped backwards on the bed again. "The children" I screamed and jumped and run towards their rooms. " Out of bed, dress yourself " We stumbled  in the dark, the ground still moving and shaking like a tumble dryer. It all took 2 minutes but it felt like hours.

After shakes kept coming  and we were all trying to find the torch. "Who had it last Where is it". Yes we were well prepared. NOT! The next scary thing was that the we couldn't get the doors open. The wooden wall was  slightly distorted. We pushed and pushed and finally the door swung open.  We didn't know what to do Go outside stay under the door post. The latter seemed the best. Slowly the rumbles went less. We didn't go back to bed, checked out the damage when the sun came up, checked on our neighbours and started to clean up the mess. A few shops were open on Saturday and the water and batteries were sold out quickly.

We also checked out the liquefaction on the road and in the garden. We heard that word on the radio. Because of the shaking water underneath the earth comes up and is under pressure. It comes out as a yellow liquid spewing through a little hole. There is so much pressure it breaks up the road and builds little sand volcano's. There are a few in our street and you can see one above on the picture.

At night we camped in our house, candles on and cooking in the dark.  Every half an hour the house shakes violently again. We were tired and went to bed early to be woken again a couple of times being shaken and we walk around like cocktails today : ). We jumped in the air this morning when we had water again although we still have to boil it. This afternoon we had power again yihaa. What a treasure that is

The kids don't go back to school yet for a couple of days. There is a curfew for the city centre which is a danger zone. It is protected by police and army at night.

(I was just holding the computer as there was just a huge after shock again The floor moves back and forwards, the lamps are swinging. It keeps scaring you.)

Nobody died wich is a miracle but not completely. Our house and most of the older houses for example are designed to move when an earthquake hits The load bearing beams are sitting on top of the piles with a piece of wire. The only thing what is fixed is the chimney therefore hundreds of chimneys fell down
People keep calling and everybody  is so caring including you dear blogging people. You realise with these disasters that things are not important at all.