February 22 Earthquake: My Experience

Hereford St just after the quake

My husband and I had popped out to buy some lunch, and were walking along Hereford Street heading towards the river and our office building. We were almost outside Mythai Thai Restaurant & Monkey Bar (which was red stickered in September and still cordoned off while being repaired) when the quake hit. Almost immediately we could hear and see debris crashing down around us. We tried to run into the road but it was impossible to direct ourselves because the ground was moving too much. We managed to stagger away from the buildings and were not hit by anything but it was extremely frightening. I'll never forget the sound of glass and bricks shattering around us, and the screams of other people on the street.

Damage to Mythai

When the shaking stopped we realised that Mythai had been severely damaged. If it hadn't already been cordoned off then we probably would have been on the pavement right beside it and been killed. The concrete kerbstones on Hereford Street were buckled and broken. We had to cross the Hereford St bridge to get back to our office building and see what had happened there and it was also buckled in the middle -- we had to jump over it.

Buckled bridge

At this stage I knew things were bad but had no idea just how badly that part of the city had been hit; we happened to be walking away from the worst of the devastation rather than towards it. It wasn't until we walked home along St Asaph St and saw what had happened in Colombo and Manchester streets that I grasped the magnitude of it. I still don't know how we got through the day without a scratch.

Damage to Colombo Street