Rumbles....

Over the last few days we've had several earthquakes, DOZENS, in the Wellington region and throughout NZ. Tonight we went out to get a Starbucks and then headed over to the grocery store to get a few perishable groceries for the week. On our way home, all of a sudden, we felt and saw everything start to move and shake. People didn't panic but rather moved out to the middle of the street until the the rumbling stopped. We stood still and waited for the quake to pass but it kept on for some time. I have to say that all the small earthquakes we've felt so far were very small compared to this one. It measured a 6.5 and was centered 16 km below the surface. I've realized the importance of knowing both the Richter value as well as it's depth because depending on the combination you can have a catastrophe like the Christchurch quakes, an tiny rumble or anything in between.

A funny aside: as we're walking from the grocery store after the big shake we overheard a group of backpackers talking, saying "Get me out of here!" as they went passed. A little ways down the road we overheard another group of people discussing how they were going to meet back up at the airport. Now granted these folks were probably not leaving just because of the earthquake but considering the timing of events it was laughable to overhear. :)

Feeling silly for not having shored up our emergencies stores of food and water at home we decided to stop at The Warehouse (it's kind of like Target) to get some water and candles just in case. This is what we found - items all over the floor in almost every aisle! I've never seen anything like it.

Sadly, this is the least of it. As the reports come pouring in we've read that the entire fire service has been deployed and are assessing the damage to prioritize what to focus on first. Buildings downtown have been damaged, windows broken, water pipes leaking or burst.

Thankfully, when we arrived home there was no damage to our building and all the windows are still intact. I had wondered if we would find dishes out of the cupboards and smashed on the floor but luckily there was NO evidence that there had been a good shake.

You can see the beginning of our emergency supplies below. We are planning to round out the survival kit and get more water (below is half the recommended store for two people) to make sure that we are ready in case something worse happens. In addition, we are putting together the things we would need if we had to leave our apartment for good. We knew that this was a risk when we moved here so it's no surprise. With that said we're hoping we've seen the worst of it.