A Post About Quakes

I'm still having a bit of a blogging hiatus due to Munchkin 1's continued difficulties (he's going back to hospital after Christmas after almost a week at home, the fix didn't stick, unfortunately), and Christmas itself. But I wanted to make a quick post about yesterday's quakes.

As you may have heard, Christchurch got hit again yesterday, right in the middle of the busiest Christmas shopping day. The retailers lost Boxing Day last year, and now this. It's not a great thing for the Christchurch economy or the rebuild. Although, I heard a partially demolished building finished demolishing itself, so I guess that's a plus for the demolition side of things.

That's not the most important thing, of course, the people are. Apparently St. John's ambulance reported 50-60 injuries this time, all minor--thank goodness. Malls had to be evacuated, etc.

I'm so grateful to report my entire family and circle of friends are all safe. My son was at work, he'd car-pooled, and my lovely brother-in-law went to collect him and take him home. My younger sister went to our house to check on Ryder, who was fine and happy to see my nephew who played ball with him for a while.

Much like June, there were two major quakes around an hour apart. First, a 5.8, then a smaller 5.3, and then about an hour later, a 6.0. These were all very shallow, and the 6.0 was centered on South Shore (near where I used to live on the beach). There was more liquefaction in the worst affected areas and basically the whole horrible mess starts over again for those on the east side of town.

Since those initial quakes, there have been the usual round of renewed aftershocks--many of them over 4, and several over 5.

I'm so sad for everyone there. The devastation may not have been as bad as in February, but I think the affect on everyone will be huge. So far the worst aftershocks have all come around six months apart, which seems to be just the right amount of time for everyone to relax and begin to trust enough to go back into malls and get on with things without so much fear. You can't underestimate how having the trust broken over and over affects people. And all the little kids who were forgetting quakes in the excitement of Christmas have had their attention firmly dragged back.

For my part, I'm discovering that being away from it all might save me the terror of the actual events, but I still spent my day anxiously trying to contact everyone and make sure they're all okay. One thing was harder, because even though I know my son is safe, I won't get the chance to hold him and be sure of that for myself. That is by far the worst part.

But, thank God I am also lucky enough to have the sort of boy whose first thought after making sure everything was safe was to send me an email saying "big shake here, I'm fine, going to try to get home to check Ryder." Luckily, he'd bought himself a new iphone for Christmas and was able to email me from it on and off all day long. That is a vast improvement on the nightmare of past quakes where I couldn't get hold of him for hours.

I am extremely lucky and grateful to have been where I was, sitting in my (extremely freaking hot) living room in Australia with Christmas shows on the TV instead of cut-in newsbreaks, with my daughter and her babies sound asleep in their room. With Munchkin 1 about to go back into hospital, I keep thinking how much worse it would be having to do that in Christchurch with all the new aftershocks right now. Believe me, I know I'm lucky.

I just wish all these simple luxuries could be true for everyone back in Christchurch. For Christmas, I think that's what I wish for them, a chance for the most average, ordinary, and boring Christmas possible--the variety that comes with as little adrenaline as possible.