Hi. I am sure, by now everyone has heard about the famous Canterbury earthquake that hit Canterbury especially Christchurch area on last Sat; 4th of Sept 2010 @4.30am (NZ time) / half past midnight (Malaysia time).
Thanks to Allah SWT that we were wide awake for Sahur at that hour..so when the earth started to shake.. we were not totally being caught off-guard on what was happening. Imagined to those people who were roughly shaken from their sleep.
It happens somewhat in a split second!! The bed and us was shaking from side to side (the sensation is like you’re sitting on a piece of cardboard that is being jerked continuously from left to right!!) adding up to the confusion was when looking up at the light bulb on the ceiling and our floor standing lamp, which swayed at a different rhythm than us. Things began to get scary when amidst of everything that was happening, the power supply got cut off and left us in blind darkness !! We could only hear sounds of our things thrown onto the floor!!
As sudden as it happened..The bed stopped shaking..everything seemed to be at a stand still.. except now only the sound of water drops from our pipes. **So, how does the story go so far?? Sounds like things happen in the movie, right?? Well.. you can bet it’s the real thing and we as well as other sane people who experienced it were scared out of our guts for being so out of control !!
We scampered to our feet and walked slowly in the dark to the living room window, afraid of being tripped off. Each and every houses in that neighbourhood was in darkness except for few street lights at our left end corner of the street. Few seconds later, we saw a neighbour’s house across the street lit by candlelight. Then it occurred to us.. why had not we bought torch or candle all this while !!
The house began to shake again and stopped ! We walked back to the bedroom. The baby is still sound asleep. Great. My hubby suddenly came out with a bright idea to push beds to the wall creating trench in between the beds. We ate our sahur quickly in the trench when suddenly we received a call from our next door neighbour; Vishan and Roshni. They were also scared and proposed for all of us to go outside the house. It seemed to be a very logical idea to do… just that it was 8 deg C outside !!
Eventually, we wrapped ourselves with winter jackets and went out side. It was really amazing to see such clear beautiful stars scattering on the sky when the surrounding is away from power supply. The sky seemed to give us assurance that everything is ok…but the problem is..EVERYTHING IS NOT OK!!
Since I was holding my baby boy; Iman and the weather outside was much too cold for him, my hubby started the car engine to on the heater and let me and Iman sit in the car. While I was nursing Iman, I could still feel the earth shaking. I looked at the car’s digital clock.. and it shows 5.20am.. that is almost 1 hour…Still, the tremor goes on and off continuously.. !!
After another 15 minutes in the car, we decided to get back into the house and cuddled in between the bedroom wall and the beds for fear if the wall might give way. While taking cover, I got a text in my handphone from my Lincoln Uni friend asking for my family’s safety. **That is really soothing when during all the panicky state.. suddenly you got a message inquiring your safety.. you could not imagine how one could feel calmness when reminded that one is still being cared by others. So, we also took the opportunity to give calmness to others by texting them and asking them about their safety as well J
The light creeps in from the bedroom window, and the clock shows time was around 7 am. Our front door was knocked by our neighbour; Vishan to inform us that some buildings along the street has crumbled to the ground. We then decided to go for a quick photography outing around the neighbourhood. **It is amazing how light could throw away the fear from ones heart. It seems that a lot of people have the same idea to go out and snap photos! It’s like a holiday and everybody is having an outing, especially with the bright blue sky and shining sun over us!. Everybody was concern with everyone else’s situations. We met stranger and shared our experiences. It’s amazing how a catastrophe like this brings together the community.
Now, after 2 days from the quake, there are stil after shocks. The strongest was at 5.4 richter scale. It’s been a harrowing experience, but we can now say that we’re an earthquake survivor.
