New Zealand Earthquake: Locals Describe Devastation

Christchurch resident Eric Robinson and his wife Sue went through the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that shook the city around 12.50 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 22, less than six months after the 7.1 quake that devastated the region in September 2010.

The walls of the family home are missing bricks, windows are cracked, and seals have gone. Eric said the regular aftershocks are big and scary. "They must be five on the Richter scale. Every 40 minutes or so the house jumps around like it is crazy again."

The couple were about 15 kilometres from the city centre when the quake struck.

"We were outside the city at Hornby having lunch and this huge concrete wall sort of flowed like water for a number of seconds so we just got out of there," Eric said.

They had to travel close to the city to escape, but a trip that would normally take 20 minutes, lasted four hours, due to the damage and chaos.

"Oh there were houses completely demolished, there were cracks in the road, there were cars sinking into quick sand," Eric said. "A whole lot of the city is just impassable now. It is just a mess, an incredible mess.

"The tarmac of the road has folded up like carpet—it's horrendous. We saw people with bandages and bleeding faces, and whole huge windows missing from buildings."

Eric said there are reports that 60 percent of the main street has been levelled at Lyttelton, Christchurch's port and the epicentre of the quake, which hit at a depth of only three miles.

By Tuesday night, the official death toll stood at 65, including passengers from two buses that were crushed by falling debris. The number of deaths and casualties is expected to rise, and several hundred people are believed to be trapped inside damaged buildings.

"It has been very frightening," Eric said. "Thank goodness no one in my family has been hurt."