Freya’s Earthquake story

Tuesday 22nd February was one of Canterbury’s darkest days ever. Boom Bam Crash it was the sound of a devastating earthquake, 6.3 on the Richter scale.

I was in my wet day class Room 5 with my friend Emma. All I can remember is Emma looking for Mackenzie’s sunhat in the cloak bay then the earthquake struck and I saw her running to get under the doorway. I knocked my head as I dove under the little desks with all the other kids. It was very scary, but I didn’t think it was that bad and thought it was just another shake. There were some ice cream containers falling with different things in them. I can also remember some little kids were screaming and I was saying to them it will be ok.

As it stopped, Miss Collins came rushing over to the classroom. I was still shaken up after the violent shake. We all went outside and went to the back field. With the aftershocks still moving and rumbling on, Emma and I went over the other side to where our class was so Mr Barr knew that we were ok. Then we lined up with everyone else. Some people crying and I really thought that there were more people in room 11 and 12 crying that there was in room 5. I suppose there were some people crying in our year because they didn’t know how their mum, dad, sister or brother were coping and the littler ones weren’t thinking the same way. Parents were pouring in to find their terrified children.

When Mr Barr took us inside there was my mum standing at the door looking for me. My emotions started to run, I started crying and I got my bag so my mum could take Luke and I home. Emma’s mum was also there so we went with them so mum or Karen could go and get Taylor and Anastasia from Burnside High School.

Mum, Karen, Emma, Luke and I all went down to Avonhead mall because that’s where mum works at Countdown. She had her handbag in her locker so she didn’t have her Cellphone or her wallet. Mum tried to ring dad on Karen’s phone to see if he was alright. She talked to a few people down there, then mum went to go and check on my grandparents, while Luke and I went with Emma and Karen to their house.

I was very worried about my dad as he works in town in the Pricewaterhouse building on the 6th floor. When we were at Emma’s house we played ‘Caddo’ it was good because then we got our mind off the earthquakes, although there were many aftershocks. When mum came back she said that Grandma was really shaken up and not very good but Grandpa was ok. Grandpa was just disappointed because his wood had fallen down which had taken him such a long time to stack up.

It went really quiet except for someone laughing outside. It was Anastasia and Taylor. They walked in the door and behind them followed dad. I was so relieved that he was ok. As soon as they walked in the door all I can remember was Taylor giving mum a hug. So we had all our family together. That was a great feeling it even made my eyes sparkle again. We stayed there for a little longer and then we went and saw grandma and grandpa. When we were there there was another aftershock. Grandma called to grandpa as Taylor and he were in the garage, but they were fine.

Dad gave mum the key to her car because dad had a spare one. Mum and Taylor went and got the car and then we all went home. When we tried to open the door there was something stopping us. It was a big Urn, but Taylor squeezed through the little gap so that she could move it and let us in. Dad went in next and we all walked around downstairs then went upstairs. There were heaps of things on the ground, everything that was on my dresser fell off and some little ornaments broke. More cracks appeared on the walls and we had lost power and water. We had a clean-up but left lots of breakables on the floor because then if we had a powerful aftershock nothing more could break. After I cleaned my room up I got all the pictures and paintings off the wall and put them into little piles on the floor so they wouldn’t break.
Just before it got dark we finally got our power on and we had some tea. That night I slept on a mattress on the floor in mum and dads room as I was still very scared because I normally sleep upstairs where it shakes really bad.

As I was in bed I was thinking that Tuesday 22nd February was a very very bad day.