https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3049&p=37950#p37950 ----------------------------------- GrouchoCaesar Saturday, 22 December 2007, 02:27 AM Re: The Living Earth ----------------------------------- A quick postscript: Spent Friday dealing with the aftermath. Waited for Civil Defence inspectors to check the structure of my sister's workplace. It is an old multi-story building so it took awhile. We were finally let in at 3:45PM. It is a gift shop - full of crystal and porcelain nick-nacks, all in glass-shelved cases. We feared the worst. But by a small miracle, nearly everything was intact, if untidy. Only about half-a-dozen items were smashed, and a few more chipped. What makes it more amazing is that one of the shops that adjoins hers had a roof cave-in and is now trashed. While looking around town, all the damage - and there is a lot of it - brought a lump to my throat. You might see things on the news and go 'gosh', but when you are actually there, it can be quite emotional. Our town was, by and large, extremely lucky. Casualties were very few, although sadly there was one fatality - an old woman who had a heart-attack out of fright, apparently. Today I've been dealing with the mess in the sleep-out. The carpet is ruined, and smells like the beach at low tide. Odds are I'm going to have to rip it up and replace it, but we'll see. The other problem is that when the glass tank shattered it was under a lot of pressure from the water, so it flung sharp glass shards far and wide. It's going to be a while before the sleep-out is livable again, but all in all it could have been far worse. Even the vacuum cleaner that was soaked is working again after being thoroughly dried out. We have had three significant aftershocks, the latest at around 11:30 AM this morning - though I didn't feel it. All the be expected, though. This isn't the first large quake I've been through, and it probably won't be the last. You [i]do[/i] get used to them. Doesn't mean you have to like them, though. Most of the town's center is back open, and people are determined not to let this disrupt our Xmas. And that's how it should be. Thank you all for your support. It means a lot. GrouchoC.