We are okay

We just got the power back on. We went to bed at 8pm because it is cold and raining and we have no heating because we have no power... no water and no electricity, and of course no internet cos they shut the lines down. But we are okay.
I was out at work (a million miles from town) and I was on duty at the end of lunch so I had my cellphone on me and got hold of Dominic immediately. He was evacuated and the airport was shut down... By the time I called Dad they had blocked off calls so I sent him a text and asked him to go to the children... thankfully he wasn't working today and lives about 10 minutes walk (on a good day) from their school. I heard nothing for about an hour then I got a text from Dad saying he had the kids and he would have to get them out of the center of the city on foot. Dom didn't get any of this news, but he dropped everything and drove as close to the city as possible, and then RAN the rest of the way (in a blind panic). When he got to school they told him that Dad had already taken the kids, so he RAN to Dad's house and found them there. He arrived right as there was another HUGE earthquake... the kids were in the middle of the road with Gaye crouched over them protecting them from the glass flying from windows of houses around them, and Dad came out of their building like a bat out of hell. Dad and Gaye headed straight out of town to Leithfield Beach, and Dom came home. The roads are a total mess, and our house wasn't good, but we are all okay.
I eventually got back to Christchurch - it was so odd to see streams of cars leaving the city, and people fleeing on foot. Just walking. Carrying nothing (but their high heeled shoes), and walking.
There is terrible liquifaction in our area - at least a foot or two of silt on the roads around St Andrews College. Places are flooded with waste water and ground water. There is sewer flowing down our street, and our driveway is REALLY a mess now. The house, well, everything was thrown out of the cupboards, the light fixture in the living room was smashed on the floor and the electrical cables were dangling. There is glass *everywhere* and I wasn't able to clean it up properly because we have had no electricity until 10 minutes ago.
There are 4 navy ships headed to our port, and we have had Hercules army planes and helicopters flying overhead all afternoon. There are a lot of sirens and emergency vehicle sirens going. Of course we are in a State of Emergency again, and specialist search and rescue workers are trying to find people in the crushed buildings.
Dad is back on duty and he dropped by before to check on us, but he said that town is toast. One building has gone flat and there are about 100 people in it, and he is hearing over the fire engine radio that there are 50 in one building, 60 there... Two buses were crushed, and 65 are confirmed dead already.
When the earthquake hit Megane was on a bus headed to Technology (another big one). She saw the cars "bouncing" around, and buses thrown over and buildings fall on cars. She saw people being transported away on the roofs of cars because there was no other way to get them out of town. Her teacher told Dad that if their bus had been one block further down the road they would have been dead. To top that off, my kids go to the oldest school in Christchurch and Megane's classrom is in the old part of the school. The old slate roof and stonework came crashing down into her classroom. The office of her school is also destroyed. Lucy said she was outside playing (more quakes now... dang, they just dn't stop) and tried to hold onto a school bench (it is still going) outside her classroom "but it didn't help" and she just kept shaking around. Sebastien was in the music room "we were tuning some ukaleyles and we got stuck in the room cos there was a pole blocking the door, and we (some other boys and himself) had to push it out of the way." They all met on the grass outside the school buildings, and Megane eventually turned up after walking back to school over the rubble from where her bus stopped. She said that Lucy was really pale and crying, but Sebastien seemed okay. Shocked but okay. Megane gave Lucy to her friend Maddie and then she went to check on the other school children. Dad got to the school after a short while and they were just so relieved to have him there. Megane said the little children were crying and asking for someone to take them away from the shaking.
Out at my school the buildings were okay - they made an awful amount of noise but... everyone was okay. However when we had finished roll call on the tennis court and had decided to move the students to the rugby field so they could play while we decided what was going to happen next... one little girl had her leg go down a "hole." When we checked it out it turned out that under (another shake) the top layer of grass it was like honeycomb. Total caves... I can't really explain it. It must have happened in the first earthquake because it looked dry under there... but huge caves and tunnels. Nothing is safe it seems.
So now the children are beside me on the couch and I should make some food. We didn't have anything to eat since morning tea except a couple of bread rolls, and we are all starving. We need to make the most of the electricity while we have it.
But please know we are okay. Scared and shaken, but we are okay.
I don't know when I'll be able to contact anyone because the cellphones are blocked so the emergency services can use the airwaves, and maybe the electricty will go off again so we will have no internet access.
I'll try to keep putting updates here. Please remember my Dad in your prayers. I just can't imagine what it would be like to be out there in the black and the rain, pulling bodies out of buildings. He is amazing.
xxx