now back to our regular programming

about earthquakes,

specifically the Christchurch Earthquake and

how to personalise this experience for you,

our home viewer.

Coming up on our programme today is a true and harrowing story

of a friend of Mags who works(ed) for the Yellow Pages

and the importance of reading those boring forwarded group emails.

We will call Mag's friend Justin

(because that's his name).

Justin was in his car,

which is a little sewing machine of a thing,

in the Smith City multi-storied carpark building

parked in his reserved work carpark

when the 6.3 Christchurch earthquake hit.

He was also in Christchurch.

(that was a joke cause this is an amazing story that should be celebrated)

Not long before the earthquake Justin had received an email,

one of those forwards,

which gave tips on what to do if you were in your car

in a multi-level carpark building during an earthquake.

How convenient.

Having read this email Justin would have forgotten about it

but it's funny about how the information in these things stick in your head.

The earthquake hit at 12.51pm

it was very close to the city

it was very shallow

those things make a huge difference when we talk about earthquakes.

As Justin sat in his car and the earthquake hit

he remembered to put his drivers seat right back,

to lower himself,

and to open the window of the car

just as the email said to do.

I'm not sure how that worked in real time

but during earthquakes time changes

and when it's your survival time really changes.

Justin avoided being crushed by the collapsing floor above

and the one above that.

He was able to wiggle out the window

considering his car is now crushed

you know that's no mean feat.

He was able to get to where he noted the stairwell was

but realised he forgot his phone.

(for those of you, OK one who said to me about my missing friend

"she may not have her phone with her"

all I can say is

"are you fing mental?  nobody in Christchurch goes anywhere without a fully charged cellphone at all times because we understand and have experienced the panic of the 7.1 earthquake in September so we make sure our phones are working and with us at all times!"*

 sorry about that, but really????)

Back to Justin,

he went back for his phone,

found his phone,

got back to the stairwell to discover

he was trapped in the building
so went to the roof

and gathered with others there.

Nobody was that coherent and an escape route was not apparent,

in fact I can't remember how they got down but I think it involved

climbing onto roofs and lowering oneself type stuff.

And now watch this article from Aussie TV

This is where Justin was

and the workplace is his.

Double click on the screen for a better view.

@ Yahoo!7 Video

That he survived is a miracle,

that he survived in one piece is a miracle,

that he was able to get home relatively quickly was a miracle

(quickly that day was more like six hours compared
to the normal hour).

Justin was able to call his wife Rachel
and she tried to get to him

but the problem with earthquakes is that where you are seems to be the worst area

but it often isn't and nearly everything is damaged.

You can only see what you see.

There is no information so getting places is hard.

Google maps do not update to include earthquake damaged roads.

Some nice people gave Justin their car

so he was able to drive to safety and his family.

He didn't know them and probably still has their car.

Justin is physically fine,

and understandably mentally struggling

but he is strong,
has good support and is getting help

and will be fine.

Everyone here had their own personal earthquakes

and we all respond differently,

we all respond our own way.
Some had narrow escapes,
some were already traumatised from the 5000 plus aftershocks
some sail through it without any effect.

There is no right or wrong

it just is.

Considering I hate going in carpark buildings without having one fall on me,

I don't blame him if he never sets foot in another one.

I hope his parallel parking is up to scratch.

*I didn't actually say any of this to her, she doesn't get it, that's ok, no point in making her feel bad because she doesn't get it.