For our final trio prompt of the year, write about any topic you wish, but make sure your post features a bookcase, something cracked, and a song you love.
Next Saturday 28th December at 1027, it is 25 years since Newcastle was hit by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. It was a day I and most Novocastrians will never forget.
I was awaken suddenly as I had been on night duty. Initially, I had thought my terrace was collapsing. I blamed the pillars of the terrace next door thinking they had cracked, causing it to fall. Either way I had to get out. I didn’t know what was going on but I was getting out.
I bolted down my moving stairs only to see my bookcases and plaster walls crashing to the floor. I rushed out onto the street just in time to see the steeple on the local church collapse.
Then the sirens began. They wailed all day and night. I lived in the damaged zone and major rescue efforts were underway. It was a scary time. The main hospital was evacuated and people were cared for on the lawns outside. Everyone did what they could.
This week our city remembers the 13 people who died on this tragic day, grateful this number wasn’t higher due to the time of year. The following song celebrates the power of our town as we supported each other through a difficult time in our history.
And we have built it up stronger than before.
God’s tender blessings on all who lost a loved one that day.
Thank you. He was definitely looking after us all.
Wow! So sorry for the people who were lost and their loved ones. Glad you and your family were OK! How badly damaged was your house?
All the walls needed to be replastered. Chimney fell down hand several other things. I will never not have house insurance as it paid for itself that day.
How tragic for your area. It remains of the day St Helens eruption. I will never forget that time. My husband and friend were caught in the middle of the ash storm and didn’t get home for a week. The people in the area put them up.
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When nature emerges her power the world does stop for a while as re learn to manage it. The times are scary but human nature thankfully does rise and many people are supported in ways they couldn’t imagine.
Hi, yes i do remember the Newcastle earth quake; i was up a 7.4 meter ladder; at the top of it when the quake struck; i was building my A frame house at Quorrobolong; on 120 acres in the Hunter valley. Quite scarey; because i do not like heights at the best of times and i was hammering with one hand and hanging on with the other; so when the shaking started i had a good grip on the rafters. I knew exactly what it was because i had been in several earth quakes before in different parts of the world; the first being at Mekering in WA in about 1964. It was the first big earth quake to ever hit WA; the riverside drive sank about 6″ in places; buildings came down and it was a miracle that there were not too many injuries; it happened on a public holiday.
Not long before the earthquake i gave a talk at the workers club to about 200 women who were attending a beauty seminar; i was talking on the nutritional value of skin care. I dare say my number was not up!!! I ran the “Wangi Natural Healing Center; at the Carey Bay shopping center from 1983-1994; just down from the psych hospital; i used to get quite a few of the people from there; they would have acupuncture to calm them down. Hope you are having a great day; LOL Murray
Being up a ladder would have been very scary. I was asleep and that was scary enough. Your associations with Morriset my sister hospital is also interesting. I trained at Newcastle Psychiatric Centre in the early 1980’s. The blessing is more people weren’t killed and Newcastle has rebuilt itself.