1. Por los pelos

La verdad es que ando salvando desastres por los pelos. Gracias a Evelin adelanto el vuelo Christchurch-Melbourne y me libro, por muy poco del último tremendo terremoto de Christchurch (feb-11). Dejo atrás amistades y buena gente y les escribo para ver si están bien. Una de las personas que me alojó en la ciudad me manda un relato de cómo vivió en primera persona los acontecimientos. Y como es trepidante y es tan cercano por la persona y el lugar, me impacta. Me ha dado permiso para publicarlo. En su honor y en el del resto de conciudadanos os muestro el texto, en inglés, de su experiencia. Impresionante estar en esa situación.

“The city is a real mess.  Many roads heavily damaged, water reticulation systems trashed (this means we will probably have a porta potty on the street for toilet for weeks if not months) 60% of tall buildings significantly damaged.
My employment location, the LInk Centre, may have to be demolished even though it is a 1970's steel reinforced building.
As the quake happened, people were screaming.  I looked out of the window and saw tall buildings normally about 5 metres apart hitting each other.  Clouds of dust filled our building's stairwell and we feared for our exit route. When we finally got up the courage to make for the exits, someone said "take your laptops!" (smart - we may never get to go back in that building).  On the ground floor, most people turned toward the street.  I went towards the basement, remembering that the World Trade Centre collapse did not include the basement levels.  Plus, that was where my bicycle was.  And the bicycle was going to be the only way to get out of the central city, with many roads blocked by fallen trees, buildings, and traffic jams.  Initially, I could not open the basement door - but then I pulled harder and the door popped open.  Car alarms were going off in the basement car park, and the noise of the fire alarm and car alarms was deafening.  I pulled my bicycle out of the tangle of other bicycles and loaded my masters project papers and laptop into the panniers.  I ran up the ramp, but found the emergency garage door release was not working.  I yanked the bike and panniers up the stairs and out the pedestrian door into the alleyway.  I checked the adjacent historic buildings (still standing) for loose parapets or leaning walls (not a problem) and picked my way over the piles of bricks.  Once out onto Cashel Mall (a pedestrian street), I rang my bell and pedalled through crowds.  Some people were pulling bricks out of my building, trying to clear an exit path (pointless as the exit path all my colleagues took was sufficient for anyone in the LInk Centre building).
Out on the street, police started directing people to walk towards Hagley Park.  I cycled through the crowds, picking my way around collapsed buildings and downed trees.  Once out of the central city, I got to Moorhouse Avenue- totally flooded.  Water mains broke.  No cycling there.  I watched some people try to cycle through liquefaction (watery sand) and fall over.  Anyone in a motor vehicle was not going anywhere - with all traffic signals out of action every street was gridlocked-.  saw a man running and asked where he was going - Thorrington school.  I said hop on my luggage rack, I'll take you as far as Brougham Street.  He was thankful.  We passed hundreds of cars stuck in traffic.  I made it home five minutes later.  DD was in the backyard with Kaon, who was so scared his teeth were chattering.  Our chimney had fallen over, taking out a favourite fern tree.  The garage is wrecked, the brick fence is loose in the liquified soil, and the internal walls show cracks.  But our Alfa Romeo (in the garage, with stuff fallen all over it) is totally undamaged.   We tidied up, prepared the sleepout for tonight (Kaon will be too scared of the house) and cycled over to see friends.
One friend is out of town.  We went to his place - his chimney was down and the roof compromised - so I managed to get through to him on my cell phone (wow!) and find out where the house and garage keys were.  I cut a piece of timber, got up on the roof, and threw the loose bricks into the yard until I was under the roof sheeting.  Then nailed the timber onto the roof and gave it a coat of paint.  DD tidied up inside as our friend's Dad was likely to be spending the night there (he hadn't arrived yet) since his Dad's house was not habitable.

We had a BBQ dinner and settled down.  The aftershocks are strong and are coming every two minutes or so, but the dog has settled down - we've let him up on the bed for the first time in his life.  The cat also came home, thankfully. It has started raining, and our well is still gushing water (the water table has risen, as in the last big quake), so the sounds are pleasant.  The temperature is cool, but comfy.
But we're very lucky.  Some people were in meetings on the fifth floor of the CTV building and suddenly looked out empty windows, and they were on the ground floor.  Literally.  And everyone on the floors below them are dead or seriously injured.”