Thursday 16 July 2009

Earthquake

For overseas readers concerned about scary reports you’ve been hearing [CNN, BBC, AP] there is little damage after major Fiordland quake:

The only reports of damage are some isolated power outages, a burst water main in Winton,  cracks in some buildings and products falling off shelves in shops. It also downed some phone and power lines.

Southland readers are welcome to give reports.

2 comments:

Shane Pleasance said...

Shake, rattle and drink

All clear since last nights earthquake.
We live in Otatara - the posh suburb of Invervegas near the beach in the forest, of course. About 9 meters above sea level and we can hear the sea on quiet mornings.

We lost power, which rolled us into torch candle mode for a few hours. Interestingly, the challenge without power was getting information – a tsunami concern. Well, the 3G iPhone is now completely justified. Tsunami warning was dropped at midnight. Looks like a power cable hit a tree a few roads behind our house.

Annabel (daughter) had a sleepover so it was all dramatic fun for the girls in the lounge.

Ed (my son) was good and got into action well with torches and boiling water on the gas stove. Gotta have that cup of tea. We went to check on neighbours but all seemed at least as well prepared as us.

Damage report (so far):
-Bit of wax on the kitchen benchtops – they are stainless steel so no worries.
-Box fell out of rafters in garage but looks like it missed everything – empty box anyway
one picture fell off in the office- no damage
-Not the greatest nights sleep (one ear open)
-The water in the tap is cloudy. We are on rainwater storage tanks, so the shaking has shaken up the bit of silt at the bottom of the tanks. We have bottled water backup anyway so no worries. Should settle over the next few days.

Thats about it. The office is about four stories high anyway, so that would have been waving like a goodbye hand…

Cross posted from pleasance family blog:
http://shanepleasance.wordpress.com/

RobH said...

Must have been more action out at Otatara. I live in Windsor which is a higher part of Invercargill and not that far from the town centre. Shook the house a bit and made it groan but nothing fell off anything, just made the drapes sway slightly. I was more worried about my workshop in another part of town that had lots of freshly painted car body panels sitting precariously on trestles and wheelie bins etc. Nothing fell off there either.