Shaken not stirred

This afternoon we have had a few earthquakes of 5 and 6 magnitude in Wellington. The first came about 2.30 pm and had me under the desk pretty smartly. It was billed in the paper as 6.6 (www.stuff.co.nz ) but I saw some readings at much lower than that. One at 5.7 for instance. Geonet revise the magnitude as they get more information.

We had a large number of foreign visitors in our building for a tsunami workshop and had to shuffle them out so we could set up the emergency operation centre. They were pretty happy to be on their way after the quake. Thankfully they had finished what they were there for. 

So it started.

We had a full house by 3.30. Mostly council staff. It seemed there were a hundred things going on all at once. With each new aftershock I got more comfortable with the rocking motion. The building is very strong so I Felt safe. Food, people coming and going, noise, the odd shake, it was all pretty cool. It was ok for us, we didn't need to leave the city, but the gridlock on the roads and the closing of the trains until the tracks are checked has inconvenienced a lot of people. power was off briefly in some areas. There were a few buildings that were emptied because people don't want to stay in them when they shake. Thy don't think about the danger of falling debris in their rush to leave. Then they don't know what to do, where to go. So they mill around and eventually go home. 

The cell phone system overloaded again, same as the earthquake on July 21st. Only texts were getting through. 

I stayed at work until 7pm and am now going to get an early night. 11 hour days are not great, but if you have to work I guess it's good to be busy. 

Here's hoping the city sleeps well tonight.

Good night

Sweet dreams.