Christchurch -- My Heart goes to you...

Today is the 5th day after the big quake that hit Christchurch and caused so many damages, casualties and fatalities. Everytime I turned on the news on TV, they were just heart-breaking news, videos and images and tears were always welling in my eyes watching them all.. so sad, I can imagine myself in their shoes..

Below are some images I retrieved from the Yahoo! News online:

As I type this, there have been 145 people who lost their lives in this tragedy (and the number will raise), and over 200 people are still missing. 1/3 of the building in CBD (Central Business District) will be demolished and the CBD is expected to be closed for months! Surely that area is NOT a safe place for public to walk around anymore. I heard from the news this morning visitors of more than 20 countries were affected, they were still missing to this very day. When things like these happen, it doesn't matter who you are, where you from, or even what religion you believe in. We are all ONE. We are all human. I noticed some people were being offensive and insensitive on this tragedy.. oh I wish they could see how tragic the the disaster is! Its the "darkest day" of Christchurch and to the people all over New Zealand..

My family & I have been sleeping at a friend's house since the 2nd day after the big quake because we're just too frightened with the strong & shaky aftershocks that always rattled our roof. I really can't get my mind off of it..even when a big truck passed by jumped me off! Thanks to our dear family friend who let us stay with them for the past nights, we are very pleased with their offer and had a rather calm nights over there. But today we decided to go back to our own home and 'try' to sleep in the house, hoping there would be no violent aftershocks tonight, or the nights after ..

On day 3 after the quake, I was driving out to get some fresh fruits and ice-cream for my 'grouchy' Arman.. And along the Marshlands Road and the nearby streets & roads in Shirley surburb, views were terrible! Liquefaction was everywhere here and there, the roads I had to drive through were wavey & bumpy and I can see some big and small cracks and holes on the road, some deep and some shallow. Road & concrete dusts were still in the air. But one obvious thing that I could see was the 'spirit of the community' and its very amazing and extraordinary. Despite the news saying thousands of people have fled this place after the quake, the people I saw were working together cleaning their homes, streets, helping each other to shovel off the mounting muds everywhere and sweeping the water off their homes, getting their residential area as clean as they could. A lot more houses were damaged by the quake this time compared to the 7.1 quake last September.. I truly feel sorry for those affected, who lost their homes, and those who have lost the lives of their love ones.. Our eyes can see but nothing compared to the burden those shoulders have to bear.. I really thank the almighty Allah for the care and protection given to me and my family. Our house is still standing, the power and water are still running.. No liquefaction in our area. Alhamdulillah..

However, most of the shop building on the Riccarton Road which is just a couple minutes driving from our home, have been 'red-stickered' and a couple of shops have collapsed. Here are the pictures I managed to get on day 2:

Yesterday was day 4, and as we drove home to get some fresh clothes for the night, I managed to get some more pictures of the damages done along the road as we were using a different road than we normally do. However some are blurry coz I took them from our moving car. Here are some of them:

Above: The Merivale Mall.

Above: Merivale area.

Above: Merivale area.

Its really sad to think that about the places that you used to go with your family have now totally 'gone'.. We have had some good times visiting the city on some weekends and took lots of pictures there. Now, they're closed for months, indefinitely... Most of the images I saw on the news were just like the ones I could only imagine to see in movies, but the facts are still the facts that what happened to us and the city where we're living in, are really a 'real nightmare'. When the police officially released the name of the deceased earthquake victims yesterday, I can feel my chest hurt when I found out among the youngest were 5 months & 9 months old baby.... oh what a great test this is to their parents! :( I feel so sad as I have a 3 months old Alynna and I could imagine the hard struggle they have to go through.. I sincerely hope they will be able to move on with lives that have been spared by God..

Most people are now learning to survive without fresh water and electricity.

I will update again soon..