Earthquake

Last Saturday at 4.35am we  were awakened to a 7.1 magnitude earthquake - we are all fine, along with the house - God was definitely looking after us all!  There was a lot of damage around the Canterbury area and it is quite random - one house will be fine & another right beside has a lot of damage.  Christchurch had a lot of damage because of liquification - because a lot of the city is built on sandy soil.  And a town north of Christchurch also has a lot of damage.  Where we live is a few kilometres away from the epicentre.  We haven't been out much so haven't really seen much of the damage, so we went for a drive the other day where I'd heard there had been a bit of damage and so the children could have a look first-hand.  Below is one of the paddocks which was 'ripped' and part of it had dropped to a lower level (doesn't really show up in the photo much, but when we saw aerial photos on tv it was quite impressive).  The road which had some big cracks in it, had been repaired by the time we went for a look.  There was a real estate sign up at the gate - I presume it was there prior to the earthquake ... might be a bit hard to sell his farm now knowing there is a fault line that runs through it now... unless he knows a seismologist who wants to buy it!  The photos shown here are nothing compared to in the city and surrounding areas though where some of the houses are going to have to get demolished. 

Here is one of the power poles which had a lean (as did most of the power poles in that area & there was no slack in the wires) ... and also the hedge that had been straight ... the road had also dropped and realigned itself, so it was no longer a straight, flat road.