Earthquake tremors felt in Mangere...

Large volcanic dormant crater 100 metres from where I live

Early this morning at about 12.20 am, my husband and I were talking when we felt our bed moving beneath us and I could hear the creaking of the door which had been closed. We stopped talking and listened in the dark as we could still feel the tremors for what seemed like 30 secs before it stopped. I then got up and asked my beloved to confirm if he thought it was an earthquake as I suspected. He knew that it was and checked around the house before turning on the TV to see if there was any news on the matter. I checked briefly outside which was very quiet, returned to bed and asked my husband to pray before we went to sleep after an eventful weekend.

I woke up as my beloved got ready for work and after he left I checked on Facebook feeds and there saw the news that I had been concerned about played before my eyes in the news feeds and various other forums. I then turned on the TV and saw that indeed it was a sizeable earthquake that we had felt the tremors of and thanked God for our safety in seeing the devastation that it has caused to parts of the South Island.

I think what is scary about this scene is that on 29 September 2009, my family and I were in Siumu, Samoa on a family holiday and had just woken up at about 7 am at my husband's family's house when the earthquake struck. As we were in their house on the mountain we felt and heard the earthquake rubbling and things moving in the house and we knew that this was seismic activity and there was nothing we could about it except to wait until the tremors subsided.

Only to be within 15 minutes later faced with a tsunami at the coast, a 5 minute drive down the hill where the school was. No one could have predicted what we were to witness next on that day when bodies were driven up the only main road in the village hours later and the next day when we drove around, we were astounded at the devastation of the earthquake around Samoa.

After that event, we discussed our plan in that should something of that nature happen that locating our children was a priority and family members, as well as checking out on our neighbours etc. We have water stored and now reminded to check on exit supplies as well as communications to be ready and available.

Today was a timely reminder that we never know when these things will happen but we need to consider what we need to have prepared and planned in the event that it may happen....