Life, Death, and Water.

An abundance of all of the above today. Good, bad, good or bad ?

Not sure where to start, I won't be as long as last night. Pretty tired and emotionally wrung out, after only 3 - 4 hours sleep. And things aren't even that bad for us. I'm still not entirely sure if it's actually me or the earthquake, but I feel as if the ground has been moving all day, with some shakes just larger than others. It's been crazy. But thankfully tonight it's a little quieter, just the occasional "roller" come through.

So the day. Well for me it consisted of looking after the kids while Hil went out and worked at the rest home caring for the elderly there. Broken hips, anxiety, although it sounds like they are tough old birds. I tidied, put things away, sorted the mess, baked bread, charged batteries, got my old bike serviceable in case I need it, talked to clients, communicated with staff on Facebook, Twitter or even on the phone, talked to lots of other people. So much, but so little when there is so much needing to be done.

I checked Twitter constantly, it's been great getting updates, and watched TV occasionally (so depressing by comparison!). The kids and I stayed at home all day, as they are advising to keep off the roads - emergency services only ideally. Lots of friends have left town; driven, flown - good idea. Heard today that a friend's wife is missing, so very sad. Really hoping that somehow she just can't check in. So very hoping. I also learned today that Hil and Hannah would have been in the midst of the disaster zone just 2 hours later. Sobering.

The shocks continue, 4 so far writing this. Tomorrow is a big day, time to re-establish the office. I'll pick up my car in the morning, grab the servers and relocate them at our hosting company. An then we can work again. Seems the power will be out for a while. We're lucky at home. We have power, heat, TV and high speed internet. But we have to cr*p in the garden, in a nice hole of course, as we have no sewerage. And we have no water. Although we have around 80 litres in bottles and I collected another 30 or so from rainwater tonight. Survival instincts kicking in!

Seems like around 50% of the city has power, 80% still has no water or waste, and death toll so far stands at 75 officially, still with hundreds missing. So many amazing stories emerging, so much tragedy also. Rollercoasters of emotion.

And if you'd like some more photos of the devastation:
* A great shot of the city just post quake
* A Flickr feed of #eqnz shots
* And the Atlantic - amazing!
* The Brisbane Times also has a similar set of photos, but look for the one of the two men celebrating. How good did they feel!

And lastly, as we left New Brighton yesterday one of the guys in our car took a video, it's low res, but you'll get an idea of the roads, flooding and devastation.

BTW, had a little chuckle today, the official hashtag on Twitter is #eqnz. I noticed some wag using #F*ckTheEarthquake, instead ;-)