Deadly Quake

My thoughts and prayers are with all those in the affected region.

Strength to you all.

Ditto; hope '3rdwatch and the rest of the wider Police whanau are ok.

Seconded.

Kia Kaha guys. Our thoughts are with you all. I'll be heading down if/when I can to help out.

All the very best.

All family members accounted for, although grandmother was MIA for a while. I'm heading in to work this afternoon, expecting a busy one picking up the overload from Southcomms.

Encouraging to see USAR and medics heading in from Australia, UK and US (and maybe Japan); we may be a small country in a corner of the world but there are friends willing to help from all over the globe.

The wife is heading over as we speak, with a team of emergency nurses,
Wish there was something I could do. 45years Sar, DVI trained.......... Seems a waste now somehow.........

we've got our name out there particularly for police/fire personel our house is open to you all if you need a holiday or to get away in HB. So hard watching it all and not being able to do alot, B put his name down on the volunteers list but doesn't look like they'll need him at this stage.

I work as security at Westfield Riccarton and while working overnight we were told by a passing police officer that a police officer was missing/unaccounted for - does anyone know anything about that and if they were found?

Hey...

Family/friends alive and well (shaken). Our (families) houses appear undamaged. we didn't lose power or water.



I was on leave this week. At home with my wife. That changed after the quake, when I turned on TV and we saw the cathedral down...The closest thing I can relate any of these last few days events to is watching 9/11 on tv in 2001. You see it, but...you just can't quite believe it. It's not right, can't be real...

Both of us have to go to work. People need help. We don't.

"My" city is smashed. So many missing. So many will be dead. We all know it. I see the piles of rubble and think "you can't tell me there's no one under that...". The Cathedral spire is literally splattered across the square. About 20 people in it, under it. My best man's mum, stayed alive by the fewest of metres as it crashed down next to her.

Buses smashed, crushed and half buried in debris, stopped in the middle of Colombo Street. Several people inside them 'stopped' as well.

I saw a car upside down, on it's roof on Hereford Street. No debris anywhere near it, no other damage to the car. A row of cobblestones pushed up to form a mini mountain range nearby is the only sign that a group of drunken students didn't just pick it up and turn it over for fun.

Lichfield/Manchester/High Street area, buried in massive amounts of rubble. Again: "you can't tell me..." A domed roof lying 2 lanes away from the building it came from, like a giant bowl in the middle of the road. What a stupid place to put a giant bowl...

Out in the suburbs, foot deep silt, liquefaction, grey sewer water, flooding entire streets. 10's of cars stuck up to the axles. Many more nose first into deeper holes.

People heading home causing gridlock 'cos they're too chicken to drive through the shallowest water or over a small lump of silt. For fucks sake people, it's just water. Some people walking have to be in the middle of the road. Fair enough they don't want to walk through it - it's shitty water.

In the middle of everything going on, some dumb bastard pulls a handgun and threatens someone else with it. Known gang address, so maybe not "just a BB gun". Then it starts to rain.

Last couple of days have been on 12-14hr cordons. Feeling useless and unhelpful turning away volunteers but, because we're working (no access to TV/Radio) we don't know what information is out there to pass on to point people in the right direction.

The new radios are just plain frustrating and the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand, or the feet, and the bosses certainly don't talk to the troops working the ground in situations like this. They just decide, with no realistic concept of how it will actually play out on the ground.

But enough of the bad stuff. The good stuff is amazing too. People just helping. So many groups/organisations and just good people drive around the outside of the cordon and bring us food, cookies, coffee, water, snacks. Though I appreciate the offer, I myself don't actually need it. But people think enough of us to do it and to offer. And they just want to help.

A guy biking home saw a long brick wall fence toppled onto the footpath blocking it, so he stopped and started stacking up the bricks out of the way, chipping the mortar off so they stack better. He'd stacked hundreds when I saw him. Got him some water as none of the generous people had noticed him working behind the row of parked cars and offered him any food etc.

...

Sorry for the long spiel - just needed to get some things down, while they're fresh.

Some of the out of towners have arrived and I think the aussies must be due. We're having a change of duties/roster. Night shift tomorrow. Got to try and catch some looters...

Thoughts are with you mate!

Thinking of you all down there. We've pulled out for now (dealing with insurance claims from the last quake) and a lot of our gear, files, computers etc is still in the hotel we were using as a base. All our staff are safe, which is the main thing. I've been dealing with people who lost a lot last time but this time the damage and the effect on their lives is 1000 fold worse.

I hate to think how we can begin to pick up the pieces again - we'll be back next week to start the process all over again.

This is after storms three weeks ago in the North Island and we are all wondering what else mother nature has left to throw at NZ.

Kia kaha Canterbury.

Glad to hear you're OK ChCh. Take care down there and all the best for the ongoing rescue/recovery effort. If you happen to come across some looters, let the aussie cops restrain them before you K9 them... They don't have to worry about the tactical options framework or filling out a TOR

Kia Kaha.

Happy to hear you're ok Chch. Best of luck finding looters - perhaps stick in them in the Grand Chancellor Hotel and see how they like that...

(Also noted elsewhere in the Country we aren't taking any crap..some bloke in Otaki was shot at around 0100 yesterday... on ya lads)

Top man, keep ya chin up matey, were all thinking/hoping the best for ya'll.

Great to hear from you Mac, my heart goes out to you guys.

You know how it is too bro; if we could, we'd all leave what we're doing and get down there...but commonsense tells us that the bosses might not be too happy with no troops around.

I'm on the list to come down there, no doubt to go on cordon but whatever - I'll do it. I just have to deal with the four innocent people I locked up (why do I keep doing that?) who have taken their cases all the way, and I have to attend NG hearings on the 15th, 16th, 23rd, 24th March (all different, all innocent, and two of them self-represented - what a complete waste of time).

Anyway my brother; even though we're not there, our hearts are with you. That sounds so much like a cliche, but it's true. I would rather be there and working to help, even if it is only on cordon.

Just stay strong, look after yourself, get plenty of rest when you can so that you may continue on, and know that our hopes and prayers are for you.

Thanks everyone. Just to top it all off, our 3-legged cat "Grasshopper" just had to be put to sleep after her kidney failure decided to catch up with her in the last couple of days. Pretty sad, but need to keep it in perspective with everything else going on. Have to keep telling myself "she's just a "stupid" cat" but... she's not stupid and still part of the family. I would do the staunch thing and carry on normally, but on top of everything else I've seen and done in the last couple of days I could do with the break. I'm taking tonight off to be sad and regroup myself.

The pressure comes off a bit with the arrival of the foreigners and out of towners too. Thanks everyone who's volunteered. Our roster has changed to E L N X X and just normal 10hr shifts. Back for an early on Monday.

Keep your eye on the news and keep the prayers going. We're going to need them for a while.

And stay safe wherever the rest of you are and whatever you're doing. Unfortunately "our" earthquake won't stop the rest of the assholes being assholes. Give them an extra one for Christchurch.