Let’s Pray 4 Everybody In New Zealand, Big EarthQuake Shakes Survivors Up!

 

baltimoresun.com

New Zealand Quake Survivors: 'It's Freaking People Out'

Twenty years ago, Sandra Scott-Harrison fulfilled her life's dream by opening her own women's hostel in a charming old Victorian house in Christchurch, New Zealand. Today she sits outside its ruins, collapsed in a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 65 people.
"I'm sitting outside under a veranda, and it's raining and cold, and my guests are here wrapped in blankets," Scott-Harrison told AOL News by telephone today from her garden. She sat huddled under a quilt, not far from where she was gardening hours earlier, in the sunshine, when the quake struck.

"I was outside gardening and fell off my stool. I managed to grab a bush and hold on to that because the ground was shaking so much," she said. Three of the four buildings where she hosts guests at her Frauenreisehaus Women's Hostel in Christchurch are destroyed."The main house is a two-story building, and the entire top story has no walls. Only the corners are supported, and just another shake and I think they'll come down," Scott-Harrison said. "The bedrooms completely lost their walls and are exposed to the outdoors.""There's one more [building] that looks intact, but I'm too scared to go into it," she said. "It's too scary. There are still aftershocks, they're still going on and it's very frightening."Scott-Harrison is mourning the loss of her dream property, a labor of love where she's hosted guests since 1991. But she's also worried about some of her guests, who had gone for a walk into the city center just before the

quake struck. They haven't returned."They are three American girls -- one from Illinois and two from California. They just checked in today and went out for breakfast in town," Scott-Harrison said. "I haven't heard from them, and I'm very worried."
Cell phone networks are down, but a few landlines are working. AOL News reached Scott-Harrison and other survivors over the Internet telephone service Skype. About two-thirds of about 30 properties AOL News attempted to contact had no phone service at all. None of those reached had electricity or water.Another American caught in the quake was Kate Cowan, originally from San Francisco, who works at the Chester Street Backpackers in downtown Christchurch."It was pretty scary. The center of the quake was only five kilometers below the surface, so it was pretty hard. Things started falling out of the cupboards. I ran to the doorway like any good California girl," she told AOL News by telephone from the hostel, which was still receiving guests, many of them quake survivors whose homes were destroyed."We just had a pretty big aftershock -- it's not stopping and it's freaking people out. We're scared and some people are trapped," she said. The quake hit just after noon local time today, toppling buildings and trapping office workers in downtown Christchurch, one of New Zealand's largest cities. The temblor ripped the facade off the city's iconic cathedral, cracked open roadways and left brick houses in piles. Authorities say 65 people are confirmed dead, but that toll could rise as more bodies are found under rubble. There are reports of buses filled with passengers being crushed by falling buildings.Lee Nolan took a drive across the city just after the quake hit."It just looks unbelievable. Everywhere you drive there are buildings down, and what they call liquefaction where the

groundwater comes to the surface and forms these mini-volcanoes. There's just water and sewage everywhere," Nolan told AOL News by telephone today. He was caught several miles from home on a work errand when the quake it and described his ordeal afterward."The drive home that would normally take me 30 minutes took an hour and half because there were so many bridges that had been severely damaged. The rivers all rose to breaking point," he said. "The roads themselves in a lot of cases had been ripped up and torn out by the earthquake itself."Nolan said army checkpoints have been set up across his neighborhood, close to the Christchurch city center, and search and rescue crews knocked on his door to make sure he and his family weren't injured. He's been able to receive incoming phone calls but can't place any outgoing calls -- a situation that's troubling for anyone who might be injured.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker called a state of emergency and urged citizens to stay off overloaded phone lines, to free them up for those who might be hurt and calling for help. New Zealand sits on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," a vast zone of seismic activity that stretches across the Pacific from Chile to Japan, New Zealand and Indonesia. The area suffers frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of today's quake at 6.3, with a depth of only 3 miles -- meaning its severity was felt more acutely because it was more shallow than others. The epicenter was almost exactly at Christchurch, a city of 350,000 -- wreaking more damage than if it had been centered farther from the urban center.

Christchurch's last major quake was on the day after Christmas, and its most serious one was last September, with a 7.1-magnitude quake centered about 25 miles west of the city. The Sept. 4 quake caused immense damage, rumbling for a full 40 seconds, but did not kill anyone -- something New Zealand's prime minister dubbed a "miracle" at the time."The one in September was completely different but still incredibly frightening, at about 4 in the morning. This one started kind of similar, but then it was just a major vibration -- a lot shorter but a lot more intense," Nolan said. "We have significant damage and significant loss of life. ... I hate to think if it had gone on for the same period of time as the one in September, I think we would be looking at even more."