A.R.S.E.

Fark! Scarry shit. I am at my girlfriends place in Wangaratta and at 9:15 am the chair started rocking while I was having a coffee, then the whole place was swaying. Buildings are not ment to move from side to side. It would have been worse in Benalla as it's closer to My Buller. Now I know what standing on jelly feels like and it's very unnerving. It puts you in edge for a few hours.

I was working in Pitt st Telephone exchange when the Newcastle quake hit ages ago. We were on the 6th floor, and 1 guy was drawing something on a whiteboard. When it happened the concrete walls seemed to wobble. It scared the fuck out of me.

On the 6th floor would have made it worse!

We found ourselves on edge for a few hours. Fight or flight really kicked in.

I was stuck in Christchurch for 10 days after the second quake and there were lots of aftershocks, many per day. They were scary as hell and I was glad to get away. The main thing was not knowing what to do - you would feel one start (sometimes sounded like a train approaching) and wonder, do I get out of bed, do I get under a table, is it going to get worse? In the end you mostly do nothing. Some had no warning - standing at a table and everything just jumps straight up but is over ion a second.

For months afterwards if someone slammed a door, my heart would give a skip. Imagine having kids there!

Didn't realize you got decent shakes over there, never a fun experience.

@smithcorp - I'm unlucky enough to have gone through all the chch shakes, still sometimes get a jump these days when you hear or feel a decent thump from something, as you say, just glad we didn't have kids at the time.

@thornz I stayed in a colleague's earthquake damaged house in Cashmere, in the basement and had many a sleepless night. And he was traumatised because he was in a cafe at lunch when the first big one hit and he saw people killed in front of him. I couldn't believe colleagues with young families didn't just go 'nope' and leave for good.

Beer out the nose Pix, well done.

I had a laugh with my girlfriend that insurance will go up now we live in an earthquake zone.

Damn lucky it hit where it did though. Only small towns and it seems only road damage. I do know of one injury, a broken foot but things would have been much worse if it was closer to Melbourne.