Home and safe and grateful
JB and I are home tonight, having stayed at S&J's last night (many many thanks to them), as the house was potentially unsafe and leaking after yesterday's quake. Probably a third of the roof tiles had slipped -- Sebastian worked like a navvy to get them back in place today, bless him. No guarantee they'll stay there, of course, but we're good for now. Lots of cracking in internal walls and ceilings, but the house structure is fine, thank goodness.
Nearly all unsecured furniture fell over, including the china cabinet (which made traversing the living room ... interesting) and pretty much everything came off the secured shelves etc. But, well -- I was at the computer when everything started falling around me, and none of it landed on me. That's serious luck.
Yes, I did scream. And cry. It was scary. As were the aftershocks. I might post about that sometime.
I managed to make it to school despite flooding and liquefaction ... Being on a bike helped a lot, though I had to walk the parts where there was too much silt on the road due to liquefaction. Much more efficient than a car, in the circumstances. It was ... an experience, wading knee-high down streets and sidewalks we traverse every day. Not one I'd care to repeat.
JB and all the kids at school were safe -- though we had to wait a while to see that for ourselves, as many of them (including JB) had been at swimming, and of course a lot of roads were buckled or blocked. JB was indignant that he'd only just got in the pool when he had to come out again. We all stayed at school a while, just being a community. So grateful for JB's little, tight-knit school.
I got quite frantic trying to get texts out to let people know we were okay. Eventually I got through to Miche and Kate, and asked them to pass on the information. Fortunately, this happened before my cellphone battery died.
Once we made it home, we started the salvage effort. I was not at all sure that the roof wasn't about to come down, which could well have meant I couldn't enter it again. So, well. Clothes and medications and stuff are handy. And we managed to get the photos, precious books and some of the other important things ferried outside. JB spent much of the time sitting out back with Oscar-dog, who was absolutely beside himself with panic every time I left his sight. Which I had to, to take things out front, where it wasn't safe for him to be ... Neighbours have stored the books and photos and some other precious things at their place for now, as they've at least got a sound roof. It's a blessing to have good neighbours, who look after one another.
S came and kindly evacuated us (including an over-excited Oscar) and far too much stuff to their place ... far too much in hindsight. But I really didn't have any idea when we'd be back, so, well. It made sense at the time.
Not a lot in the way of sleep last night, between a snuffly boy and an overexcited, whimpering dog (there's a resident cat, and he wanted to play with it!). Oh, and the world wiggling every so often.
Today: lots of cleanup. The kitchen was not as bad as it could have been, though I grieve for my uber-stock of doooom! which fell out of the fridge, along with a fair batch of other stuff. Out to the compost heap it went, sadly. The only serious food mess, amazingly, was a broken bottle of blackcurrant syrup. Sticky purple books ... oops. Oh well.
We've got the worst of the glass cleared up, and cabinets etc upright again, and have safe paths through the mess. JB managed to get most of his books back on his shelves, and helped with other stuff as needed. More clearing tomorrow should see it mostly right.
And S fixed my roof. Did I mention that? He did. I'm just blown away by that ...
We've got power, thank goodness. No phone or water, though, but that's manageable. And no rain coming in tonight. There is much to be thankful for.
Now, if only the ground would settle down a bit.
(And oh, but there is a tremendous amount to be sorrowful about ... So many lives lost to this quake, and so many beautiful buildings gone. But now, I'm practicing being just-me, just-here, and I'll leave that grief for later.)
Nearly all unsecured furniture fell over, including the china cabinet (which made traversing the living room ... interesting) and pretty much everything came off the secured shelves etc. But, well -- I was at the computer when everything started falling around me, and none of it landed on me. That's serious luck.
Yes, I did scream. And cry. It was scary. As were the aftershocks. I might post about that sometime.
I managed to make it to school despite flooding and liquefaction ... Being on a bike helped a lot, though I had to walk the parts where there was too much silt on the road due to liquefaction. Much more efficient than a car, in the circumstances. It was ... an experience, wading knee-high down streets and sidewalks we traverse every day. Not one I'd care to repeat.
JB and all the kids at school were safe -- though we had to wait a while to see that for ourselves, as many of them (including JB) had been at swimming, and of course a lot of roads were buckled or blocked. JB was indignant that he'd only just got in the pool when he had to come out again. We all stayed at school a while, just being a community. So grateful for JB's little, tight-knit school.
I got quite frantic trying to get texts out to let people know we were okay. Eventually I got through to Miche and Kate, and asked them to pass on the information. Fortunately, this happened before my cellphone battery died.
Once we made it home, we started the salvage effort. I was not at all sure that the roof wasn't about to come down, which could well have meant I couldn't enter it again. So, well. Clothes and medications and stuff are handy. And we managed to get the photos, precious books and some of the other important things ferried outside. JB spent much of the time sitting out back with Oscar-dog, who was absolutely beside himself with panic every time I left his sight. Which I had to, to take things out front, where it wasn't safe for him to be ... Neighbours have stored the books and photos and some other precious things at their place for now, as they've at least got a sound roof. It's a blessing to have good neighbours, who look after one another.
S came and kindly evacuated us (including an over-excited Oscar) and far too much stuff to their place ... far too much in hindsight. But I really didn't have any idea when we'd be back, so, well. It made sense at the time.
Not a lot in the way of sleep last night, between a snuffly boy and an overexcited, whimpering dog (there's a resident cat, and he wanted to play with it!). Oh, and the world wiggling every so often.
Today: lots of cleanup. The kitchen was not as bad as it could have been, though I grieve for my uber-stock of doooom! which fell out of the fridge, along with a fair batch of other stuff. Out to the compost heap it went, sadly. The only serious food mess, amazingly, was a broken bottle of blackcurrant syrup. Sticky purple books ... oops. Oh well.
We've got the worst of the glass cleared up, and cabinets etc upright again, and have safe paths through the mess. JB managed to get most of his books back on his shelves, and helped with other stuff as needed. More clearing tomorrow should see it mostly right.
And S fixed my roof. Did I mention that? He did. I'm just blown away by that ...
We've got power, thank goodness. No phone or water, though, but that's manageable. And no rain coming in tonight. There is much to be thankful for.
Now, if only the ground would settle down a bit.
(And oh, but there is a tremendous amount to be sorrowful about ... So many lives lost to this quake, and so many beautiful buildings gone. But now, I'm practicing being just-me, just-here, and I'll leave that grief for later.)