Hi all and thanks for the kind words, we Cantabs need as many as we can get and appreciate them all This shake was truly hellish but I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I was at work in Sockburn so a wee bit away from the epicentre and the building held up O.K. After we all sorted who was where and that we were all safe everyone shot home. A journey that takes 15 minutes took me an hour, and a horribly anxious hour too. The street that I live in is a mess, up and down with piles of sand and sink holes. I walked in to find water dripping out the front door and when I got to the lounge I saw that 5 of the 6 tanks had lost 25% of their water and my 160 litre planted community tank had rocked off it's stand and smashed, glass, gravel and mud all over the place. I frantically picked up fish and was happy to find some survivors, a few Corydora, most of the BNs, a Wild Krib and a couple of Chain Loaches. I lost a school of Cardinals, two large SAEs, some BNs, Corys, Chain Loaches and Guppies. I estimate a total amount of water on the floor to be 300+ litres.
I had no power so I ran around and grabbed all the blankets and thick towels and some bits and pieces of poly and covered the tanks as best I could. The water came back on yesterday so I could do some water changes on the smaller tanks and the power came on at 4pm today, hallelujah, I love that stuff, the filters and heaters are back on at last
I'm not sure how the house has faired yet. I have liquefaction front and rear of the property and likely under the house too. There's cracks in the cladding and of course the carpet has to come up.
Like I said, I feel lucky. I feel terrible for all the people who lost lives and for those that have lost loved ones. I have friends who had some lucky escapes and I'm dreading the day I find out someone I know has lost their life. I hope that day never arrives.
I want to say a huge thank you to the people who got in touch with offers of homes for my fish and plants. In the end I got by but knowing that help was just a couple of text messages away was a massive relief. Thank you so much, you know who you are