We’ve just heard from our sister organisation in Christchurch.
If anyone wants to help - cash, donated goods, physical help - please contact their local Red Cross website.
The local social & volunteer agencies are just too badly affected themselves to be co-ordinating this right now.
If anyone’s looking to donate money, the NZ Red Cross website is www.redcross.org.nz/donate. It’s been going down frequently, which is understandable, so you can also donate though this website: http://www.grabone.co.nz/christchurch. You can also donate through the Sallies, or the Rotary Club.
Gleena, the Kiwi Mafia is called ‘The Dirty Kiwi Network’ where I work. I might start calling us the Kiwi Mafia, though. It’s got a good ring to it.
Sighning in. Now water. No Power. No Sewerage. House looking even more stuffed. Road looks like it’s in a third world country.
Right now I am physically and emotionally exhausted and have bugged out to stay with my sister in law out of town.
Honestly I just have no words. I will never take power, running water and a hot meal for granted again.
But three out of three cats turned up when we went back today. 
Pantani, glad you and the cats are safe! Will you be able to return there to live, or will this force you to move?
Oh Pantani, thank goodness all is well. You’re right about the things we take for granted though: I start whingeing when the water/power are off for even a couple of hours, but watching the news now, the authorities (understandably) can’t give you any time estimate for when those basic services will be restored. What a bloody mess. 
Keep safe, and keep us updated as you can.
Oh, by the way, y’know how they reckon cockroaches would be the only things to survive a nuclear blast? Well I reckon cats’d give them a very good run for their money. You just can’t kill the bloody things. 
Hopefully repairable but we’ll just have to wait and see. We had a quote, three weeks ago, for $89,000 to repair the damage from the last quake, I suspect that might have gone up a bit.
Have two warm and silt stained beers in me now so feel a bit better.
Glad you & yours are all ok.
They’re saying on the news that there’s activity back at the CTV building - dogs & specialists. Hope this means good news.
There’s a Facebook suggestion going around that if you’ve heard from someone who’s in the area but they don’t have access to phone/internet that you post on their wall letting everyone else know they are OK. IT might set someone’s mind at ease.
Latest news is saying that they’ve pulled out the S & R teams and are now going in with bulldozers maggenpye. I’m guessing this is not good news.
Bugger, too much sadness.
Choice, bru. Choice. 
I gave some cash to the Red Cross today. Not much else I can do. 
Pass this link around, it’s an appeal to donate. With the whale. It’s pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGUg4tNR2M&feature=youtu.be
There are some unbelievable pictures at the end of this article. A warning though, some of them are a bit graphic.
I’m going in to donate today.
I’ve had an email back from NZ Blood services & I’m still not allowed to give blood, even though I’m in perfect health, because I spent time in the UK in the 80s.
Last night 80% of Christchurch was without water. Its not a silly idea for everyone to keep bottles of water in their fridge.
I’m not allowed to give blood either, so cash will have to do.
Yeah, saw that not long after I posted but couldn’t face booting up the PC again just to post bad news.
Still hoping to hear from **DavidNZ **and **Ritter **when they get a chance.
Sadly one of my colleagues at work has had confirmation that a family member in Christchurch was killed by the quake.
It seems the official toll is 98 dead, 226 still missing.
I’ve never been to New Zealand. But most of my family members have visited there, either just as regular tourists, or in the case of a couple of nephews as hard-core trekkers and rock-climbers. They’ve all raved about the place AND the people making me wish that I could manage a trip there myself.
Yet despite my geographic and socio/emotional distance, I can’t seem to stem the tears that erupt when I least expect them. Australia has had it’s own mother-nature-smack-downs in recent weeks but none of what I’ve seen here has come anywhere near as confronting as what I’ve seen of the earthquake in Christchurch.
The cold hard stats are that so far, ninety-eight people have been killed by this fucker of a quake. There are still over two hundred people missing. In a country as small and compact as NZ, that is a massive loss.
I’ve been lucky in my life. I’ve never been in the midst of a natural (or other) disaster. I have no idea how people manage to cope AND come out the other end still fighting. And to be perfectly honest, I’m in no rush to find out first hand either.
But my heart and tears go out to NZ at the moment. I know my words are friggin’ pointless in the big scheme of things, but sometimes words are all that we have to give.
Yeah, apparently there was an international Urology Convention happening.
Certainly apt I guess…it’s ended up being one pisser of an event. 
Day Three on the ground.
Today I worked out what it feels like. It has the same disjointed unreal feeling that I felt on the day of my father’s funeral. In a lot of ways the same grief as well. So many of my favourite buildings, places just gone.
Spent the day at my parents in law. The’ve had silt, water and mud all through the house. Most of the time was shifting furniture and then ripping up all the carpet, cutting it into manageable pieces and dumping it in the driveway. Their house is stuffed but the medium term aim is to get it into a state where it can be lived in again.
Have power back on in my house. Seems that most people on the street have moved out to stay with friends or realtives. Was just so nice to be able to make a cup of coffee and spend half an hour sitting on the sofa watching TV. Still no water and god knows what the sewerage system is like in our street. I see a port-a-loo in our future.
Starting to get my head around things and seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel but living right now is a day to day thing. Not thinking too much about the long term future. My wife is a teacher and as schools were closed that afternoon for a union meeting she is terrified of empty desks in her classroom.