NEW ZEALAND Face Painters - Everyone Okay?

My thoughts are on New Zealand after hearing about the earthquake. I'm wondering how everyone is, especially the kiwi forum members.

Best thoughts!

I just stared the same thread

Hi,

My aunt lives in New Zealand about an hour outside of Christchurch and we received an email from her last night. She stated that the quake was huge, her house is sound just dishes and knick knacks broken, but she is out of power and water. She stated most of the damage is in the bigger city where the older buildings are. Lots of sink holes. She is off to stay with her mother - in - law who has power and water. No casualties at the time of her email. Lots of aftershocks , as she was writing us a large aftershock hit and she had to go offline.

So if we don't hear from our fellow FP kiwis, just keep in mind the power outages, they will be back soon.

Annette wrote: So if we don't hear from our fellow FP kiwis, just keep in mind the power outages, they will be back soon.

Duh! I'm such a dodo that I didn't even consider power outages, thanks for the info and I hope your aunt stays safe and sound!

I didn't think of power outages either. I'm Praying for them!

Gosh, I am impressed people know about the earthquake in little old NZ.

Well I am fine, we live about 6/7 hours away (don't know the distance in km/miles) on the upper island. We definately felt it but wasn't any different to the other quakes we get (I am in Wellington so we get a few)
It wasn't until I went out to a face painting gig and heard people talking about a quake in Christchurch that I realised it was quite serious (If it was reasonable here, god knows how big it was down there) Scary!

I really feel for anyone down near the earthquake, there seems to be quite a lot of devastation (luckily very few lives lost!) and now they are dealing with stong winds and rain.

I have quite a bit of family down there and they are all ok, one of them will loose their house and a few have lost cars but they are all fine themselves, just a little shaken.

How many other face painters from NZ are in here...?? Hope you are all ok too!

Daizy, great to hear you're okay. I'm not sure on the total number of other NZ painters on the forum but there are a few that are regular posters that my mind immediately went to when I heard the news.

I hope the recovery process for your family (house & cars) will be a speedy one.

Anyone hear anything yet? Still praying for NZ Face Painters, their families & community.

Luckily not too much harm to people, only a couple of major injuries and one death last I heard (an elderly man, from a heart attack).

I'm in Auckland (the largest city) and a 1.5 hour flight from Christchurch so it's pretty much life as normal here. We've got lots of friends down South as my boyfriend's from there and although they've told me its obviously not a lot of fun, they don't seem to be too phased by it. I feel sorry for the people who have lot their houses but it seems all things considered, they were very lucky... they're saying the quake was pretty much on par with Haiti, and that was a massive disaster

I just received another email from my aunt. The mall is open!!! She was happy to be out of the house. Tired from being holed up. She stated that her power has been restored, water does not need to be boiled anymore and that most places have sewage reconnected. (You really don't think about all these things until they are not working.) But she was sad to see so many buildings with the "red tag" meaning they would have to be demolished. The aftershocks have still been strong, yesterday they had a 5.1. But over time she said those will diminish. All in all she expressed the same as Daisy and SEZnz (sorry don't know your proper first name) a little shaken up, a bit inconvenieced but happy that it wasn't worse.

Thank you for the updates!

Hello FPF Family, This is another email from my aunt. Things seem to be going much better. But I don't know if I would like to have my feet rumbling underneath me unexpectedly.............

Annette

I am pleased to tell y'all there isn't much to report. All is well. We are getting on with our lives and looking forward.

Today, I answered the door to two red-clad individuals from the Red Cross. Apparently I am on a list of 65 year olds and over who have not responded to the call from the Ministry of Social Development to advise them I am ok. The Red Cross folks were checking that I was still alive! Ahh...isn't that nice. My bank also telephoned me last week specifically to check whether I am ok. I am so glad I live in this country.

In the last 24hrs we have had 38 aftershocks and a total of 651 since the big one on Sep 4th. One, at about 3.15am this morning, jolted me awake. That one was 4.5. So, you think they are getting less and less then suddenly they come back.

Another area that copped a fair bit of damage was in the suburb of Halswell. Mum and I were over there for lunch and we saw cracks in the road and that ghastly silt stuff the the 'quake threw up from the said cracks. What a dreadful mess. Lots of toppled chimneys and brick walls. The restaurant that we went to ( The Old Vicarage) is a lovely old villa. Apart from one chimney badly cracked it came out of it fine.

There are two terrific web sites that posts all the aftershocks. The time, place, date and magnitude. I felt a shock at 7.30pm. Its now 8.10pm so they are pretty prompt at updating it. Its: geonet.org.nz. The other one is: christchurchquakemap.co.nz.

Wow, thanks for the update...that's amazing to know they have experienced that many aftershocks.