earthquake woz here

Photo credit - see for more photos

I love this photo from the air which I saw on the news - it's like a little signature the quake decided to leave.

For an absolutely hilarious quake-related photo, look here.

The weird thing about this weekend has been the contrast. Since power came back and we got to see the news and hear if people were okay through facebook, it's been clear that our side of town got off very lightly while others did not. Which is weird because, being on the west side of town, we're actually closer to the epicentre of the quake, but it's the eastern coastal side which has been hardest hit.

There are clues. The roads near my dad's house have been ripped up a bit but not approaching the extent of some roads elsewhere in the city. There are funny little mud volcanoes appearing - something to do with "liquefaction", I am told:

In my area, the roads seem absolutely fine. We hardly saw any visible damage, and there's nothing like the mud volcanoes near Dad's. We did notice that our fence seems to have buckled a bit, and a few of the planks broken, as the earth twisted beneath it:

But it's really quite tame. I know that at least one wedding went ahead yesterday, while today people are holding open homes or going about their normal daily business, and everything's strangely normal except that people are buying up on petrol, bread and water, and that the aftershocks are still going, at least a couple every hour.

The university is closed for a week for repairs. I'm really quite lucky that this is the greatest of my worries, but I can't help feeling annoyed. I was building up quite some mental momentum, aiming to work extra-extra-hard on my thesis, but I left most of the stuff I needed in my office at uni, and now won't be able to do it. Enforced holiday, I suppose!

Update: Okay, just saw pictures/videos of some of the quake damage at uni - I GET IT. Clean up is needed. Very, very much. Our poor, poor library.