Since we had the EQ I've been working on a list of things I've learnt... Some of them will probably be "duh, everyone knows that" kinds of things to other people. Before I start I should mention that ever since I was tiny Dad has told us "if Something Big happens, I'm gone. You won't see me for 3-5 days at least. I'll be immediately on-duty and you will have to be patient. I can't just come home. However, all other fire personnel will help you all they can, but I can't come home"... so we were raised to #1 Not Panic and #2 Do What Needs To Be Done. Dad taught us a lot of stuff just by his daily life that got us prepared for this too. Some of that will be in the list, so maybe I should call it "List of Stuff You Should Know/Do in an Emergency"
1) Always sleep with shoes/slippers and a dressing gown/clothes next to your bed. (Dad used to go to bed with his clothes lying on the floor, ready to jump into them. I know he does this at work but I don't think he does it at home anymore??) When the electricity is cut off (for whatever reason) you cannot see what is on the floor and you don't want to waste time or energy having to look where you put your feet. You want to get out of bed, slip your shoes on and go get your kids... There could be glass, sewerage, splinters... anything on the floor.
2) Keep your rings and cellphone in a (closed) drawer so they don't go flying around the room (Chuck, you scoffed but I still have my rings)
3) Have a 72hr kit handy (we keep ours in the car so if we travel we have it with us and if we are at home then it is safe because our garage will never fall down... and if it did it is easily moved away)
4) Tape a magnetic/wind-up torch to the underneth of your table. That way when your kids want torches for their games and they steal them out of the 72 hr kit you will still have one that no one else knows about, and in a very handy spot.
5) Keep candles/matches/torch/blanket in a cupboard near your table (so you can get them without leaving the room when the kids are whimpering under the table)
6) Raise you kids so they trust you. Always be calm and in control in difficult situations. Never start yelling, or panic. This is so if you tell them everything is okay and that you will look after them they instantly stop worrying and just do as they are told.
7) Have water storage! Not just bottled drinking water from a shop that you can safely open and drink without having to do anything to it, but gallons and gallons of water (fill up your empty milk bottles or juice bottles and store them at the back of the pantry or under the stairs) so you can wash, flush the toilet, clean up stuff that has fallen on the floor, rinse dust out of clothes etc etc etc.
8) Check on your neighbours - they are probably freaking out and could do with a Voice of Reason and a bit of a laugh.
9) Declare a State of Emergency in your own house. You have no idea when the electricity or water will come back on so tell your family NO ONE OPENS THE FRIDGE/FREEZER (or the cold will come out and the food will rot), we walk everywhere because we need to conserve petrol (this means no cruising around town sightseeing the damage), the gas in the BBQ is not to be touched (and certainly not for heating water to make coffee... come on people!), we will only eat food that can be eaten without any cooking (so we can save the gas in the BBQ bottle etc) and comes from the cupboard, we do not "make dirty dishes" because we have no idea when we can wash them propertly and we do not want to stink up the kitchen with dishes piling up in the sink. You may pee in the toilet but nothing else! (and this means no toilet paper in the toilet either). If you are smart you will have a large supply of zip lock bags... Let them poo in that, then double bag it and throw it away in a sealed container. Toilet paper also goes in ziplock bags. (Buy up big on ziplock bags right now!) You must ask for a drink until told otherwise as we have to ration the drinking water. The cellphone is for contacting family and emergency calls only. It is not a source of light. We do not play games with it. We do not take photos with it. Any kind of battery powered thing is only to be used when totally necessary. If it is cold outside we keep all the doors and windows shut as much as possible to keep the heat in... This is because everyone else around you will be acting like someone is going to turn on the electricity/water/internet and open the well stocked shops any minute now.... hello people, our shops have been open for a week but the shelves are empty because the warehouses are destroyed, the railroad is warped, the road leading thru the mountains to our fair city has a massive landslide over it and they are trying to dig it out and when there is no electricity there is also no security alarms/lights/EFTPOS so you can pay for your purchases etc etc and no one wants to go to work! Until all the services are back WE PRETENED THEY MIGHT NOT BE BACK FOR A MONTH.
10) Start pointing out/talking about the positives IMMEDIATELY. Everyone is alive. The air is breathable. We have light (candles, torches). We have shoes on and jackets so we are well clothed and protected. (aftershock... just a wee one) You can see a lot of stars when there is no electricty in the city and the street lights are out. We contacted our family and everyone is accounted for. The sun will be up soon. When we all snuggle together we are warm. We have a cellphone. We have lots of zip lock bags.... :)
I'm sure I'll think of more but right now I have to go and prepare for my French classes tomorrow. My poor students are getting SO BEHIND because of the earthquake etc and it kills me!!!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday 13th September
Well we made it thru Day 8. I've turned all superstitious (like a certain friend that thinks she is going to die at 43) and I wasn't counting on surviving the earthquake until after Day 8 (because that is when Haiti had another Big One)... so now I am official alive and living on borrowed time. Good on me!
I started back teaching at school today. Period 1 was okay. I've got Yr 10 kids which are an earthquake in themselves so we didn't notice any aftershocks (apparently there was one or two). I made it thru the hour and was super greatful that I don't see them again until Thursday (I mean, I love them but, heck they are WORK). Period 2 I had a non-contact period where I listened to the other teachers freak out about their destroyed houses and how insurance companies are going to try to avoid paying (blah blah, what will be will be). Period 3 I had to teach via Video Conference to students around the country. Only... the audio cables in the back of the TV screen were snapped off. It seems they are what stopped the unit from crashing to the ground. They were stretched so tight that the little gold wires insider the plastic were longer than the plastic casing. It is hard to explain. So that lesson was cancelled... Poor kids, they are now going to be 7 periods behind the rest of the country (that were not in the quake zone). My last 2 periods of the day were... interesting. We had a few aftershocks and the kids were nervous. Actually, the girls were nervous and upset. Every aftershock had a few of them near tears. It didn't help that my classroom is in what i am *convinced* was once some sort of metal container. It now has glass sliding doors, a couple of windows and carpeting... but it is just a metal box on piles. NICE... this means it shakes when the boys come romping in every period and when you have actual aftershocks it moves. In the one big one I said to the kids "really? do you think it is an aftershock? yer, probably is... so, what would you like to do? Get under the desk, or shall we wait and see if it stops soon? Personally I'm okay with just waiting it out... but if you want to go under the desks then go for it" and by that time it was pretty much over (except for the swaying) and they stayed where they were. I mean seriously, we can't be going under the desk for every little aftershock. We will get nothing done and every five minutes I will have boys screaming "earthquake!" and disrupting class by insisting we all go under the desks. No, my policy is to keep reassuring them that our little tin can will just shake a bit (aftershock right now) but nothing bad will happen. We are much safer there than in the "bunker" (main building - which was a mental hospital before it was rented out as a school building... and is really like a concrete bunker with no windows). So yer, tears, quakes, and lots of talking about what happened at their houses. One girl fainted when the earthquake happened. Lots of others lept out of bed and narrowly avoided being squished by 6ft bookcases. Because of their religion (I am at a private school just for Exclusive Brethren children, otherwise known as les freres plymouth) they seemed very fatalistic about it all. If you die, you are dead. Nothing. Lights out. It's all over. (no reunion with God is seems??) and these things can happen at any time so there is no real reason to panic or live in dread... This is a more peaceful mindset than what I imagined they might have.
In any case, I had made a powerpoint about the earthquake (showing the different buildings and structures in town that were damaged so they learned all kinds of "en ville" vocabulary) and also another about how to have a 72 hour kit. Of course here I made a major faux pas. NO ONE IN ANY CLASS knew what a 72 hour kit was... and at one point I said "sheesh, how do you not know what a 72 hour kit is? Don't you watch TV or something??? Ummm, ooops. Sorry. You really don't watch TV. Okay, let's start at teh beginning...." and we went from there. DUMB! I should have thought this thru a little more before I asked if they were Quake Safe.
As for me, I felt unsettled most of the day. I didn't want to go out to school as it felt really far from the rest of the family, and if anything happened it would take me a good 24 hours to hike all the way back into town. But my kids are well drilled on what to do, so I knew they would be okay. It was hard to focus and get back into teaching/learning/assessment mode because the last teaching period seems so long away. Like MONTHS ago. The kids felt the same. By the end of the day I felt desperate to get back to my own children and make sure they were okay, and give them hundreds of kisses. I am not scared of the actual quakes, but I think deep down I must be very aware of how easily it can be to be seperated (permenantly) from your family, but something than can strike with no warning... and that is totally out of everyone's control.
However, you can't live your like thinking that you might fall under a bus, or an earthquake might strike, or the ring of volcanoes around your city might decide to burst forth, or a tsunami might drown you. Que sera, sera.
So I came home, got the kids and took them to the supermarket so we could make their favourite dinner (chicken tacos). And no, not because it might be The Last Supper, but because they love it and I like it when they are happy! We took dinner down to Dad and the boys at the fire station. I love living 2 minutes from Dad's work :)
I started back teaching at school today. Period 1 was okay. I've got Yr 10 kids which are an earthquake in themselves so we didn't notice any aftershocks (apparently there was one or two). I made it thru the hour and was super greatful that I don't see them again until Thursday (I mean, I love them but, heck they are WORK). Period 2 I had a non-contact period where I listened to the other teachers freak out about their destroyed houses and how insurance companies are going to try to avoid paying (blah blah, what will be will be). Period 3 I had to teach via Video Conference to students around the country. Only... the audio cables in the back of the TV screen were snapped off. It seems they are what stopped the unit from crashing to the ground. They were stretched so tight that the little gold wires insider the plastic were longer than the plastic casing. It is hard to explain. So that lesson was cancelled... Poor kids, they are now going to be 7 periods behind the rest of the country (that were not in the quake zone). My last 2 periods of the day were... interesting. We had a few aftershocks and the kids were nervous. Actually, the girls were nervous and upset. Every aftershock had a few of them near tears. It didn't help that my classroom is in what i am *convinced* was once some sort of metal container. It now has glass sliding doors, a couple of windows and carpeting... but it is just a metal box on piles. NICE... this means it shakes when the boys come romping in every period and when you have actual aftershocks it moves. In the one big one I said to the kids "really? do you think it is an aftershock? yer, probably is... so, what would you like to do? Get under the desk, or shall we wait and see if it stops soon? Personally I'm okay with just waiting it out... but if you want to go under the desks then go for it" and by that time it was pretty much over (except for the swaying) and they stayed where they were. I mean seriously, we can't be going under the desk for every little aftershock. We will get nothing done and every five minutes I will have boys screaming "earthquake!" and disrupting class by insisting we all go under the desks. No, my policy is to keep reassuring them that our little tin can will just shake a bit (aftershock right now) but nothing bad will happen. We are much safer there than in the "bunker" (main building - which was a mental hospital before it was rented out as a school building... and is really like a concrete bunker with no windows). So yer, tears, quakes, and lots of talking about what happened at their houses. One girl fainted when the earthquake happened. Lots of others lept out of bed and narrowly avoided being squished by 6ft bookcases. Because of their religion (I am at a private school just for Exclusive Brethren children, otherwise known as les freres plymouth) they seemed very fatalistic about it all. If you die, you are dead. Nothing. Lights out. It's all over. (no reunion with God is seems??) and these things can happen at any time so there is no real reason to panic or live in dread... This is a more peaceful mindset than what I imagined they might have.
In any case, I had made a powerpoint about the earthquake (showing the different buildings and structures in town that were damaged so they learned all kinds of "en ville" vocabulary) and also another about how to have a 72 hour kit. Of course here I made a major faux pas. NO ONE IN ANY CLASS knew what a 72 hour kit was... and at one point I said "sheesh, how do you not know what a 72 hour kit is? Don't you watch TV or something??? Ummm, ooops. Sorry. You really don't watch TV. Okay, let's start at teh beginning...." and we went from there. DUMB! I should have thought this thru a little more before I asked if they were Quake Safe.
As for me, I felt unsettled most of the day. I didn't want to go out to school as it felt really far from the rest of the family, and if anything happened it would take me a good 24 hours to hike all the way back into town. But my kids are well drilled on what to do, so I knew they would be okay. It was hard to focus and get back into teaching/learning/assessment mode because the last teaching period seems so long away. Like MONTHS ago. The kids felt the same. By the end of the day I felt desperate to get back to my own children and make sure they were okay, and give them hundreds of kisses. I am not scared of the actual quakes, but I think deep down I must be very aware of how easily it can be to be seperated (permenantly) from your family, but something than can strike with no warning... and that is totally out of everyone's control.
However, you can't live your like thinking that you might fall under a bus, or an earthquake might strike, or the ring of volcanoes around your city might decide to burst forth, or a tsunami might drown you. Que sera, sera.
So I came home, got the kids and took them to the supermarket so we could make their favourite dinner (chicken tacos). And no, not because it might be The Last Supper, but because they love it and I like it when they are happy! We took dinner down to Dad and the boys at the fire station. I love living 2 minutes from Dad's work :)
Friday, September 10, 2010
9/11 2010
It was a sobering reminder to go to the memorial ceremony for 9/11 at the Twin Towers steel sculpture this morning of how hard emergency personel work for the rest of us. There were only a few fire fighters there and they had to leave immediately after to go and help with the Quake clean up. The speeches were great, and Dad did a wonderful job as MC (as usual). I think the pictures say it all
xx
Earthquake, aftershock - who cares, I fell in the gutter!
I just got back from a midnight run to the supermarket with my friend Leslie and as I got out of her car I went to step up on the kurb but somehow missed, or slipped or fell and ended up lying flat on the wet (super soggy) grass by the side of the road. I got laughed at, then I came in the house and Dom said "heck, did you just feel that earthquake?? It was a big one!" So, that's what did it to me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have no idea how else I ended up lying with my groceries on top of me... out by the road.
I've got a sore ankle from it, can I claim that as Quake Damage?
I've got a sore ankle from it, can I claim that as Quake Damage?
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Friday 10 September
Lucy is beside me eating a honey sandwich (that she made herself... I can't wait to see the state of the kitchen) and just told me that it isn't her breakfast. She will have her breakfast next. I asked why the honey sandwich can't be her breakfast and she said "because breakfast is something that can have milk in it." Interesting...
Dad is working hard today trying to cover the holes in his roof, then he has to finish organizing the 9/11 commeration that is tomorrow morning. Because the fire fighters have a list of over 400 calls yet to attend to they cannot be present (even though it is at the World Trade Centre steel sculpture outside the central fire station) so he really hopes a good number of the public will be there. They will have people from CNN and the NY Times there. Imagine how it will look if there are just the officials! Eek! We will go of course. We go every year.
The drama of my day is that my gym is SHUT!! The entire building is shut... turns out there is something wrong with it. It is one thing to not be able to go because I've got kids coming out my ears, but because the building is condemned - AAAGH!
Dad is working hard today trying to cover the holes in his roof, then he has to finish organizing the 9/11 commeration that is tomorrow morning. Because the fire fighters have a list of over 400 calls yet to attend to they cannot be present (even though it is at the World Trade Centre steel sculpture outside the central fire station) so he really hopes a good number of the public will be there. They will have people from CNN and the NY Times there. Imagine how it will look if there are just the officials! Eek! We will go of course. We go every year.
The drama of my day is that my gym is SHUT!! The entire building is shut... turns out there is something wrong with it. It is one thing to not be able to go because I've got kids coming out my ears, but because the building is condemned - AAAGH!
Wed night
Lucy said the cutest thing tonight... we were on the couch having just read a book called "Three days without light" about 3 Nephi 11, and she said "I really love Jesus, he is my very best great guy. I want to be like Jesus. He can fly and he has POWERS!" Waa ha ha ha! Now if that isn't a great reason to be Christ-like I don't know what is :)
My run around the park today was great. There was one part of Hagley Park that was blocked off (opposite the Arts Centre - not sure what damage has been done there, but let's face it, that is an old building and all made of stone. If you ask me it will only add to the Harry Potterishness if it is semi-fallen down) but we went thru the gardens a bit and popped back out near the Antigua Boat Sheds. Anyway it was great to be doing something normal! And it was 13C so it was the perfect temperature and Sebas was with friends so I only had to supervise 2 kids on scooters. Bliss! This is only the second run I've had this week, and I did go to yoga, so lack of exercise is partly responsible for my emotional state. (Mostly it is wishing I could play with Colt, but the other part is Cabin Fever)
The pictures I took today of Dad's house say it all. Both sides are being proped up by sheets of wood and bracing. The houses on either side have still got red stickers on them, but once Dad's house is more stable they can come back and live iin them again. The gap in his spare bedroom is bigger, and we've had light rain all day but the tarps seem to be keeping off most of the bad weather. When I went by today they had the slow cooker in the front room cooking some kind of chicken dish! Yes, you read that right, the front room! It's not that the kitchen is falling down or anything. I guess it just seemed like the right place to cook a chicken dinner? It just goes to show that everything here is backwards at the moment.
We really only had a couple of aftershocks (that we could feel) today. Phew. The ground feels like it is shivering however, so I don't know if it is somehow girding it's loins for another Big One or if it is just settling. The good news is that we can now drink the tap water again. Lucy and Seb keep coming and asking me if I can boil them drink, or if we have safe water in the fridge - and I keep replying, "it's okay, you can drink out of the nap now" and each time they both yell "YAHOO!" and do a happy dance but then ask 5 more times if I am sure it is okay. I am not sure when it will sink in that it is okay now, and in half an hour and after lunch and tomorrow... the water is safe again. It is touching to see how happy they are about water. Anyone that knows my kids knows that they drink water (their mother only let's them have milk on cereal and we never ever buy fizzy drinks or juice, but they can have it at a party) but their love of it was never as obvious before. Personally, I am loving having a dishwasher again. Steralizing the sink, heating the water, working out the washing/rinsing in one sink... it was a pain.
The kids are not looking forward to going back to school. They are not upset at all by the earthquake, they just love being at home :) Seb has had the best time out on the street with his various wheeled things playing with Kadin and Connor (identical twins that live next door) and Lucy has been with Laura (my "favourite daughter", from the house next to Kadin and Connor) and of course Megane and Grace have been inseperable. The good news is that the official school holidays start in two weeks. Bring it on!
My run around the park today was great. There was one part of Hagley Park that was blocked off (opposite the Arts Centre - not sure what damage has been done there, but let's face it, that is an old building and all made of stone. If you ask me it will only add to the Harry Potterishness if it is semi-fallen down) but we went thru the gardens a bit and popped back out near the Antigua Boat Sheds. Anyway it was great to be doing something normal! And it was 13C so it was the perfect temperature and Sebas was with friends so I only had to supervise 2 kids on scooters. Bliss! This is only the second run I've had this week, and I did go to yoga, so lack of exercise is partly responsible for my emotional state. (Mostly it is wishing I could play with Colt, but the other part is Cabin Fever)
The pictures I took today of Dad's house say it all. Both sides are being proped up by sheets of wood and bracing. The houses on either side have still got red stickers on them, but once Dad's house is more stable they can come back and live iin them again. The gap in his spare bedroom is bigger, and we've had light rain all day but the tarps seem to be keeping off most of the bad weather. When I went by today they had the slow cooker in the front room cooking some kind of chicken dish! Yes, you read that right, the front room! It's not that the kitchen is falling down or anything. I guess it just seemed like the right place to cook a chicken dinner? It just goes to show that everything here is backwards at the moment.
We really only had a couple of aftershocks (that we could feel) today. Phew. The ground feels like it is shivering however, so I don't know if it is somehow girding it's loins for another Big One or if it is just settling. The good news is that we can now drink the tap water again. Lucy and Seb keep coming and asking me if I can boil them drink, or if we have safe water in the fridge - and I keep replying, "it's okay, you can drink out of the nap now" and each time they both yell "YAHOO!" and do a happy dance but then ask 5 more times if I am sure it is okay. I am not sure when it will sink in that it is okay now, and in half an hour and after lunch and tomorrow... the water is safe again. It is touching to see how happy they are about water. Anyone that knows my kids knows that they drink water (their mother only let's them have milk on cereal and we never ever buy fizzy drinks or juice, but they can have it at a party) but their love of it was never as obvious before. Personally, I am loving having a dishwasher again. Steralizing the sink, heating the water, working out the washing/rinsing in one sink... it was a pain.
The kids are not looking forward to going back to school. They are not upset at all by the earthquake, they just love being at home :) Seb has had the best time out on the street with his various wheeled things playing with Kadin and Connor (identical twins that live next door) and Lucy has been with Laura (my "favourite daughter", from the house next to Kadin and Connor) and of course Megane and Grace have been inseperable. The good news is that the official school holidays start in two weeks. Bring it on!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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About Me
- Suzy
- Our family of 5 currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. I love being here because of the weather, the clean water, Dad living 5 minutes from us, and our Ward. I miss my friends and family overseas and invite you all to come here for a holiday!
