Earthquake!

I was woken by the roar at 4.30am. I think I was the first to wake and I know from a previous experience when we were in a hotel fire that I just jump into automatic mode.  My first thought was my baby asleep in her cot - so as I ran to her room I yelled at my husband and the kids to wake up as I went, although a couple of them were already coming out of their rooms, crying with fright.

Alice was sound asleep, but I scooped her up and we all ran down to the living rooms where we took shelter under the table and under the bench. And then it was over.

The shaking and rumbling was terrifying. I didn't realise how scared I was until it was over. My heart was racing and I was breathing like I had been running. It was pitch black outside, which didn't help, and cold.

The aftershocks were plentiful and loud. The children, and me too, were all edgy and jumpy for at least 2 hours afterwards. I started shaking when it was all over, and so we all rugged up in blankets and jerseys, just in case we had to run outside.

Then we walked through the house to survey the damage. We were very fortunate in that we only lost a few ornaments. A couple of pictures fell down. And I lost my beautiful Lladro girls that my sister gave me for my 21st birthday. I'm quite heartbroken about it really, and I hope that I'll be able to find a replacement.

All morning we've had phone calls and texts and emails from family and friends - which is so nice and appreciated. We've even heard from friends in England, North Carolina and Illinois, USA. Amazing to think it has made the news over there.
We've also had the neighbours calling in for coffee - which has been lots of fun.

We're still getting aftershocks. One of my children is quite scared and runs to huddle under the bench with pillows at every shake. In the warm sunshine and bright light of day, and chatting with the neighbours, it's hard to believe it happened, until I look at my broken things and we get the odd shake. When the aftershocks come, it feels a bit like a boat shuddering.

We are in the Waimak area which is in a state of emergency (if you're watching tv), but we are nowhere near the coast, so there is no power outage or water shortage in our rural area.

In our homeschooling we've had fire and earthquake drills before, and I've always tried to teach the kids not to be afraid, blah, blah, blah. But now I've had enough excitement. It's not really much fun, and I was afraid. But I'm awfully glad for our government rules on house building - they seem so flimsy when they're being built with the concrete slab and the miles and miles of planks of wood, but now I know why and I'm glad.