The rescue workers have spent all day and half the night carefully clearing out the rubble from the Cathedral, expecting to find about 20 bodies under the bell tower mess and guess what?
Nothing!
No bodies in or around the Cathedral!
I suppose you could call that a miracle????
So, everyone in there must have managed to escape.
Not so lucky in the CTV building because that one caught fire and anyone inside was already squashed down into the ground. That's where the International students were and the local TV station workers too. That hunt is continuing but unless there's a pocket of safety down below in there, most bodies will be mangled and burnt. Very hard to identify.
Many families have shifted out of Christchurch, taking their kids, who were becoming traumatised, to a new town or city, moving in with family elsewhere for a break or just relocating forever. Schools in other towns have suddenly enrolled hundreds of new kids.
But other people who don't have somewhere else to go (mainly the poorer families) are just stuck in suburbs with no power, water or toilets still and with no income and very few supermarkets within reach. Thousands of people have lost their jobs - their place of work ruined. Builders, plumbers and electricians will be OK - plenty of work for them once the clean-up is over.
The Salvation Army and other groups are bringing in food and water and a few individuals who have spring water on their land are sharing it with the neighbors. The residents are all pulling together and helping anyone who needs help. And volunteers from all around the country are going down to help sort things out and give the locals a break.
Things will come right but the face of Christchurch is changed forever.
Robyn