Earthquake update

On Monday we had two more significant aftershocks. The first hit at 1 o'clock (lunch time) and many parents came and took their children home then - it was about 5.3. The school I was at did not suffer any new damage at that time despite the fact that it was a school near the sea. Other areas did suffer some damage and that time and then the second hit at 2.20 and was 6.3 - a vicious aftershock which did more damage to the eastern suburbs. The liquifaction came back, more flooding more buildings damaged and some came down. There has only been one reported death this time - an elderly resident in a rest home who had something fall on his head. In Feb there were 181 deaths.

My own house has more damage and more broken crockery etc (I'm running out...). Again we lost power and water - chemical toilets and portaloos are becoming part of every day life here. It was a cold night - down to freezing. Luckily I had a gas heater so the neighbours came over to our house for the evening and everyone sat round telling stories. We got the services returned on Tuesday.

All schools were closed on Tuesday but many reopened today (Wednesday) some are reopening tomorrow but a few do not know when they will be able to reopen. We still have several high schools sharing sites - this entails one school taking all their classes in the morning and a second school being bused over and taking all their classes in the afternoon before being bused home again.