Story by Jarod Broker (NZ herald). Story courtesy of msn
A car, destroyed by falling rubble, on Madras Street in central Christchurch. Photo / NZPAMany Christchurch residents are counting themselves lucky to be alive after this morning's massive 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the city.
Marsha Witehira, 30, was sleeping when the wall next to her bed collapsed in and falling bricks narrowly missed landing on her head.
Her friend, Tama Wharepapa, was sleeping in the lounge when items started falling on him from a wall unit. He rushed into Ms Witehira's bedroom and pulled her by the feet out of the way of the collapsing wall.
"It just missed my head," Ms Witehira said.
"He literally pulled me by my feet in my sleep, just at the time that the bricks fell on my bed and it just missed me. It was pretty intense," she said.
"I'm very lucky to be alive. If Tama wasn't here to wake me from my sleep and pull me out, I really wouldn't like to think what the result would be."
Other walls in the home Ms Witehira rents had also collapsed and most of her property had been destroyed. It was just a massive noise
Knee Doherty said she was asleep in her central Christchurch home when the building next door collapsed.
"We didn't even notice the movement as much as the noise," she said.
"The back of the house is pretty much gone. All the house next door is gone. It was just a massive noise."
'Extremely violent shaking'
New Zealand Herald reporter Jarrod Booker, who lives in the central Christchurch suburb of Linwood, said he was woken by "extremely violent shaking."
"Items were falling and crashing around the house. It was extremely violent shaking."
He said the chimney from his next door neighbour's house had fallen and smashed through a car's windscreen.
"There have been a number of aftershocks of a much lesser degree since then."
Mr Booker's partner, Kineta Knight, said it was a scary sight to see.
"The entire chimney landed on my car. It completely smashed the windscreen. I heard something falling and I thought it was a pole. The whole thing was in really slow motion."
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